/AniTOBA
EXTENSION COURSE
IN
MUNICIPAL ADMINISTRATION
AND PUBLIC FINANCE
e
aay
THE UNIVERSITY OF MANITOBA
THE DEDARTMENT OF MUNICIDAL AFFAIRS OF MANITOBA
THE MANITOBA MUNICIDAL SECRETARY-TREASURERS’ ASS'N
e
A Roprint of Addresses Delivered During
University of Manitoba
June 15th to 19th,
ws for Municipal Oficials and
LIL Mombers of Municipal Councils in Manitoba
Lo? > SL
“The great problems of human welfare cannot be solyed by any one government, any
one municipality, or any one province, but only by a great co-operative effort of all.”
Ex amas
UNISERSTEATS,
AMBERTALNSIS
a, Alenceraily
INDEX OF ADDRESSES
DELIVERED AT THE
EXTENSION COURSE IN
MUNICIPAL ADMINISTRATION AND PUBLIC FINANCE
June 15th to June 19th, 1953
Some Fundamental Concepts
of Municipal Governnent
The Report of the Provincial~
Municipal Conmittee
Implications of the Welfare
State - Economic, Social
and Political
The New Rules of Residence
The New Rules of Residence
Functions of Welfare Agencies
Department of Public Welfare
Family Bureau
Family Court
Juvenile Court
Children's Aid Societies
Preparation of Jury Lists
ere es
Mir, RuM. Fisher, Q.C., LL.D
Deputy Minister of
Municipal Affairs,
Province of Manitoba,
Professor RC. Bellan,
Department of Political
Economics and Sociology,
University of Manitoba,
Mr, H.C. Pentland,
Assistant Professor
of Economics,
University of Manitoba.
Miss Mi,B, McMurray,
Legal Supervisor,
Department of Welfare,
Province of Manitoba.
Mr. G.V. O'Brien,
Assistant Superintendent,
Welfare Department,
Gity of Winnipeg.
Mr, K.0, Mackenzie,
Deputy Minister,
Department of Public
Welfare,
Province of Manitoba
Mr, Wed. Johnston, Q.C,
Deputy Provincial Secretary,
Province of Kanitoba.
LV.
Md7
Page
1
B
18
25
ar
30
36
L
BSARY OF THE UNIVERSITY
OF ALBERTA
Blectors' Rolls and Lists - Mr, A.W, Vincent, 10
of Electors and Rate Payers Secretary-Treasurer,
‘Town of Tuxedo.
Grants for Education - Dr. R.0. MacFarlane, 49
Deputy Minister of Education,
Province of Manitoba.
Modern Office Routines and - Mr, P.F.C, Byars, 53
Procedures President, Manitoba Municipal
Secretary-Treasurers' Association,
Know How and Know Why - Professor A.S.R, Tweedie, 60
Director, University Extension
and Adult Education,
University of hanitoba.
Origins of Modern British - Professor W.L, Morton, 62
Local Government, Chairman, Department of History,
University of Vanitoba.
Problems of Local Governnent ~- Mr, Elswood F. Bole, 68
Re-organi zation Municipal Representative on
Provineial-Munici gal
Committee.
Dramatisation of The = Mr, Paul Kenmay, C.A., 72
Preparation of a hunicipal Municipal Auditor.
Budget Mir, J.P. Keeley, C.A.,
Municipal Auditor.
Mr, R.L. McDonald,
Secretary-Treasurer,
Town of Selkirk,
lr, W.R.B. Trow,
Secretary-Treasurer,
Town of Boissevain and
Municipality of Morton
136898
SOME FUNDAMENTAL CONCEPTS OF MUNICIPAL GOVERNMENT
by
Mr, R.M, FISHER, Q.C., LL.D
In his Gettysburg address Abraham Lincoln used words which we might
well recall and consider in Canada in this twentieth century.
"That we here highly resolve that this nation shall under
God have a new birth of freedom and that government of the
people by the people for the people shall not perish from
the earth,"
In this country government at any level is an institution whereby
people of their own free will and choice choose certain of their fellows and
delegate to them authorities to be exercised for the common good,
Responsible government is not sonething distinct and apart from
people. It is established by free men and subject to their control to insure
law, order and justice in society, It is not superimposed control by a group
of individuals free to seek their own selfish aims and ambitions - without re~
gard to the rights, freedom and the common good of individual citizens, It is
among free peoples governnent of the people by the people for the people.
Professor Arnold Toynbee has stressed that the acceptance and over-
coming of challenges to a nation's life are the price of survival of its
civilization,
The title of this paper and its place on the programme was inten-
tional. An introductory statement of a broad basic principle was made because
in the consideration of the practical problems of municipal administration and
public finance it is well to remind ourselves of fundamental principles or
concepts to guide our thinking and test our conclusions, lest without these
sign posts we lose our way in the wilderness of conflicting propaganda and
special pleading dished up daily by radio, by television, on every platform and
by every publication in the land,
There are sone today who believe that this modern flood of propa~
ganda constitutes a real danger to clear thinking and we should be aware of the
insidious danger of thought control in modern society.
Another development that disturbs me is the increasing tendency for
people to look to governments at some level or another for the solution of all
the personal problems of human kind, We are in danger of selling our birth-
right of being free, independent, self reliant, self-respecting human beings,
for a mess of pottage of paternalistic control. Once our combined surrender
goes far enough we may be past redemption,
Government for the benefit of any powerful organized group or groups
= te
in society, whether they be racial, religious, industrial, agricultural or trade
union, which through financial power, voting strength or through political
pressure, seek policies primarily designed for their selfish benefit without
regard as to how they may affect and prejudice the rights and freedoms of con
mon men and women, will eventually bring about what Lincoln feared some form of
dictatorship and freedom will perish from the earth,
When I find a municipal council, as I sometimes do, taking the atti-
tude that the municipal corporation is something separate and apart from the
electors and ratepayers of the community, and what council does is none of
their business and that the council has no obligation to keep people informed
as to the reasons for council's actions, I come to the conclusion that this is
not government of the people by the people for the people.
I, Jurisdiction of municipalities, councils and members of council.
Section l of "The Municipal Act" is as follows ~
"h. No municipal corporation shall have the capacity
to contract or use its funds in a mamer not authorized by
its letters patent or by this or some other Act."
Municipalities only have such powers as have been delegated to them
by the Province,
May I also draw your attention to sections 287 and 288 of "The Muni-
cipal Act."
"287, The powers of every municipal corporation
shall be exercised by the council thereof."
"288, The powers of the municipality shall be
exercised by by-law when not otherwise authorized or
provided for."
These sections do not provide that the powers of the council shall be
exercised by the mayor or reeve, or by a councillor within his ward, or that
they can be exercised at all if there is no statutory authority to do so, or
that they can be exercised in any manner contrary to the provisions laid down
in the Act.
It is important to remember that as a council you can only do the
things you are authorized to do and you can only do the things you are author-
ized to do in the manner provided by the authorization,
This may be the place to draw your attention to section 303(1) of
"The Municipal Act,"
"303 (1) (a) Any member of the council of a municipal
corporation who expends or authorizes the expendi ture
of any moneys of the corporation without having been
first empowered so to do by by-law or resolution of
the council; or
(b) any member of the council of the municipal
2S
corporation accepting or voting in favor of paying to
any person, including any member of the council, any
sum not authorized by this Act or any greater sum for
any purpose than is permitted by this Act,
shall for every such offence in addition to being liable in a civil
action instituted against him by the corporation or any ratepayer
thereof be liable to a fine of not less than twenty-five and not
more than two hundred dollars and in default of payment, to imprison~
ment for not less than one month nor more than two months,"
Again there is an important section in "The Criminal Code of Canada’
"164, Every one is guilty of an indictable offence
and liable to one year's imprisonment who, without lawful
excuse, disobeys any Act of the Parliament of Canada or of
any legislature in Canada by wilfully doing any Act which it
forbids, or omitting to do any act which it requires to be
done, unless some penalty or other mode of punishment is
expressly provided by law."
Incidentally, the Department of Municipal Affairs has no jurisdiction
or authority except such as have been delegated to it by statute,
If you object on the ground that strict adherence to these provisions
is impractical, my answer is obey them until you get the law changed,
It is true that under section 327 the council may appoint committees.
"327(1) The council may appoint committees com-
posed of as many of its members as it deems expedient,
and may delegate to them its powers respecting the exam-
ination of any question, the management of any business,
or the execution of specified duties, but not for the
revision of the assessment roll,
(2) Bach committee shall render an account of
its labors and decisions by report signed by its chairman,
or by a majority of the members present who compose the
committee; and no report or order whatever of a committee,
except such orders as are authorized by by-law or resol-
ution, shall have any effect until it has been adopted by
the council at a regular or special meeting."
The important provision is that committees only have such powers as
are specifically delegated to it.
Pollock, C,B, in Reynell v. Lewis, 16 L.J. Ex. 305
Held that the term "Conmittee" means an individual or body to which
others have committed or delegated a particular duty,
In re Scottish Petroleum Co., 51 L.J. Chan, 845. Kay, J. said -
"I observed in the argument that according to one's ordinary idea of
=/3
the meaning of the word "Committee" it consists of more persons than one, But
Iwas not right in saying that because that is not ex vi termini the necessary
meaning of the word "Committee" which simply means a person or persons to whom
anything is delegated."
It seems, therefore, that council could appoint a ward councillor as
a_committee and delegate to him the duty of reporting on some matter or spec-
dally authorize him to do a certain act, but it must always be remembered that
council might be subject to criticism for delegating to a committee a matter
and thus putting it beyond the control or review of the council, It is also
important to note that a committee has no authority beyond what is specifically
given by by-law or resolution, and what was pointed out previously about whether
the delegation of authority should be by by-law or resolution also applies in
these cases. If specific authority is delegated the phrasing of the authority
should be given careful attention so there can be no argunent in the future as
to what actually was delegated,
II, Gonduct of Business of Council
Now let us look for a minute or so at another fundamental concept.
"320, (1) Every disputed question shall be decided by
a majority of the votes of the members of council present, ex-
cept in cases where, under the provisions of this Act, another
number of votes is required to carry the matter,
(2) No question once decided shall be reversed
without notice from at least one meeting to another, nor un-
less a majority of the whole council vote in favor of such
reversal.
"321, Every member of the council present when a
question is put, except the head of the council or chair-
man, shall vote thereon, unless a majority of the council
then present. excuse him or he is prohibited from doing so
by this Act."
I think it can be laid down as a general proposition that members
mist vote on disputed questions except as provided in the section.
Now let us deal with the position of the mayor or reeve,
First, he shall not vote except in case of tie.
"322, The head of the council or the chairman shall
not vote except when there is an equality of votes exclusive
of his own vote, in which case he shall give a casting vote."
Second, he is head of the council and chairman of its meetings.
"335. The mayor of a city, town, village, suburban
municipality or municipal district, and the reeve of a rural
municipality, shall be the head of the council and the head
and chief executive officer of the corporation,”
As chairman if he wishes to discuss or argue a question he should
Ee
leave the chair and have someone else appointed temporary chairman,
‘Third, he has the poner of veto.
"336, (1) The head of every municipal corporation
shall in addition to all other powers, have the power of
vetoing any by-law, resolution or measure adopted or passed
by a vote of the council, authorizing the expenditure of
money, at any time within twenty-four hours after the time
it is adopted or passed by the council, by giving to the
clerk notice thereof in writing, and the clerk shall forth-
with give notice in writing of the veto to each member of
the council,
(2) The veto may be overruled and removed at
any subsequent regular or special meeting of the council if
a majority of the members of the whole council, not counting
the mayor or reeve, are present and a majority of the mem-
bers present vote in favor of overruling and removing the
veto, For the pursose of the vote on the question of over-
ruling and removing the veto the mayor or reeve shall not
be deemed a member of the council."
Fourth, he has certain duties of a general supervisory character.
"337. The head of every municipal corporation shall
be vigilant and active, at all times,
(a) in causing the law for the government of
the corgoration to be duly executed and put in
forces
(b) to inspect the conduct of all subordinate
officers in the government thereof;
(c) as far as is in his power, to cause all
negligence, carelessness and positive violation of
duty by subordinate officers to be duly prosecuted
and punished; and
(a) to communicate from time to time to the
council all such information, and recommend such
measures within the powers of the council as tend
to the improvement of the finances, health, security,
cleanliness, comfort and ornament of the corpor-
ation,"
Fifth, he presides at council meetings and maintains order and de-
corum,
"339. The head of every municipal corporation shall
preside at meetings of the council, or, in his absence, or
if his office is vacant, caused by resignation, death, judicial
decision or otherwise, the members present. may, fifteen min-
utes after the’hour appointed, appoint a chairman from among
abe
‘themselves; and such chairman stall have the same authority
and shall exercise the same functions in presiding at the
meeting as the head of the corporation might have had or
exercised if present."
340. (1) At all meetings the head of the council or
chairman shall maintain order and decorum and decide ques-
tions of order, subject to an appeal to the council,
(2) The head or other chairman of the council
may expel and exclude, or cause to be expelled and excluded
from any meeting any person guilty of improper conduct at
such meeting
Sixth, he may suspend policemen -
"366, (1) Every mayor or reeve may, within his juris-
diction, suspend from office the chief constable or any other
constable of the municipal corporation, and may, if he choose,
appoint some other person to the office during such suspen-
sion, and he shall immediately after suspending him, report
the case to the council, and the council may dismiss such
officer or remove such suspension and restore him to his
office,
(2) During the suspension of such officer he
shall not be capable of acting in his office except by the
written permission of the mayor or reeve who suspended him,
nor during such suspension shall he be entitled to any
salary or remuneration,"
Seventh, he signs cheques ~
"666, (1) All moneys of a municipal corporation paid
to or received by the treasurer thereof shall be deposited
at least once every week in a chartered bank to the credit
of the corporation, in an account kept in the name of the
corporation, and shall be withdrawn only upon the cheque of
the treasurer, countersigned by the head of the corporation
or by such other person or official as is named ty by-law
of the corporation."
Apart from these powers ani duties or such others as you may find
statutory authority, the mayor or reeve has no special power or authority.
So far as individual councillors are concerned, unless they have
specifically been delegated authority by council and in that case only within
the strict interpretation of their delegated authority, they as individuals
have no powers apart from council.
There is only one exception to these general propositions ~
"303, (3) Paragraph (a) of subsection (1) of this
section shall not aply to cases where an expenditure of
an amount not exceeding one hundred dollars is necessary
Bee
or urgent to repair any public work of the corporation or
for aiding any indigent person within the limits of the
corporation, In any such event, however, it shall be
necessary before the expenditure is made for the head of
the council first to authorize the expenditure,"
Ill, Assessment,
Assessment is the foundation of the foundation of the whole muni-
cipal structure, If the foundation is faulty the structure will collapse.
Our present law provides that land shall be assessed at its value.
The courts have generally interpreted this to mean market value, Along with
this provision an even more important principle is laid down in section 10h1.(3).
"Lol. (3) Notwithstanding that by the provisions of
this Act, property is to be assessed at its value, the amount
of the assessment of property complained against shall not be
varied by the court of revision if the value at which it is
assessed bears a fair and just relation to the value at which
other property in the municipality is assessed;...."
Of the two provisions section 10h should be the controlling factor
for the following reasons,
Assessment is nothing more than a measuring stick to insure that tax-
payers shall contribute equitably to the public purse, It is not valuation for
sale, loaning, investment or appraisal purposes.
So far as taxation is concerned it is inmaterial whether assessment
values are above or below market value so long as they are equitable between
taxpayers, The mill rate is the component balancing factor.
In the market value approach to assessment representative sales are
used as an index of the level of values, and assessments are made by comparison
of individual properties with the standards selected as representative sales.
‘The market value approach has real merit in theory in that it begins
on the firm ground that sales or market value is the only objectively deter-
mined value and is, therefore, free from arbitrary opinion or judgment. The
level of value is one which has been weighted and determined by actual buyers
and sellers in the market and there is no attempt to begin with or to arrive
at an arbitrarily selected level of values.
While this approach has real justification in theory it is subject
to a number of limitations in its practical application which make it unsuited
to the purpose of tax base determination in Manitoba, It is practicable only
when the land market is reasonably active and there is a sizeable turnover in
ownership of property. In hanitoba land markets have undergone extreme fluc-
tuations between excessively active or boom periods and seriously stagnant or
depression periods, To select a certain base period as representative of a
long-time average level of market value incurs the risk of wide error, More~
over, depressions in the land market have often been so severe as to make it
impossible to select satisfactorily representative sales values from the
limited sales record,
7
The success of the market value approach is also dependent upon the
proper interpretation and selection of representative sales or market values.
Sales of properties differ widely in respect to the nature of the properties,
the circumstances and terms of sale and the nature of the buyers and sellers,
While a representative sale may be defined as a contract between a willing
buyer and a willing seller between whom no special arrangenent or relationship
is known to exist, no sales are entirely free from specific circumstances which
are not known to an outside observer,
A further limitation to the market value approach lies in the prac-
tical application of representative sales values to individual assessments,
The selection of specific properties as representative sales does not cuard
against errors in comparing properties tote assessed with the standards selected.
Variations between individual properties are innumerable, These differences
are noteasily recognized and their importance is almost impossible to gauge
with any degree of accuracy, A technique which depends upon individual judg-
nent in the comparison of specific properties with established standard pro-
perties is open to a wide range of error.
I submit that market value or a percentage thereof is an unsatis-
factory assessment principle for the following reasons,
Actual sales represent only a small fraction of the total number of
Properties involved, perhaps 10% or in sone communities there may Le no sales.
An assessor cannot with any degree of accuracy determine the market
value of the other 90% which have not changed onnership,
If an assessor is required to use actual market value or a percentage
thereof, how can he at the sane tine arrive at equal and uniform values when
similar properties have actually sold at different prices for no apparent
reason,
If market value is strictly followed uniformity and equality is in
danger of being ignored,
‘The Supreme Court of the United States has laid it down that when
you are faced with conflicting laws which require equality and laws which re-
quire property to be assessed at market value or words of similar meaning that
if one principle is to be sacrificed equality cannot be but remains the test
of fair and legal assessment,
Equality and uniformity is not possible under a system which requires
similar properties if sold at different prices to be assessed for tax purposes
at different values.
Even if market value could be successfully established it would be
uncommercially unsound from an administrative standpoint.
It would require an annual revaluation because of market fluctuations.
‘A revaluation of each property each year would be expensive and burdensome,
There are other basic reasons why market value or a percentage there-
of should not be used in evaluating property for assessment purposes.
seve
These affect the financial stability of the municipality, its credit
rating and perhaps its solvency.
You know what happens to market values ina depression, If assess-
ments follow suit it may be difficult for municipalities to raise even necessary
revenues, Then in inflationary periods with wages and costs pyramiding taxes
must follow suit, Indebtedness incurred in an inflationary period which has to
be paid with depression dollars poses real problems in municipal finance,
We believe that in this province we have evolved a sounder approach
to assessing,
Basically so far as land assessment is concerned we are endeavoring
over a period of approximately twenty-five years to determine the productivity
of various types of land,
As regards buildings we have determined average costs of construction
over a period which irons out temporary fluctuations in costs.
In other words we are determining an average economic basis for
assessment,
This does not mean that once this job is done that we are through
with the job of equalization,
Equalization is a continuous jet as changing conditions and use of
properties must be considered if equalization is to remain. Community develop-
ments may occur, blighted areas may devolop and the periodical application of
depreciation is an important factor,
Such a procedure as I have briefly outlined established by scientific
analysis a predetermined tax base that is designed to be low enough to provide
a maximum of protection to municipalities in an inflatory period and high
enough to provide a maximum of aid to municipalities in a depression period.
It also provides a method by which equality and uniformity can be maintained
without an annual and expensive revaluation,
It will provide municipalities with a dependable base on which to
build a sound tax structure that will not change with fluctuating market values,
I have stressed these principles of assessment as fundamental because
I believe it is along these lines we can build a stronger and more equitable
basis for municipal government than we have had heretofore,
IV, Modernization of Municipal Organization and Administration.
I do not intend to elaborate ny fourth fundamental concept, but only
to outline it.
In government as in life we do not stand still, we either go forward
or back, If your administration is not living it will die, What was good and
useful in municipal organization and administration fifty years ago is not
necessarily satisfactory now,
Conditions are changing rapidly, economically, scientifically and
a
socially, Municipalities are now in big business and must conduct their affairs
accordingly. Communications and transportation have created a new world,
Municipalities are concerned in many activities today of which they
never dreamed fifty years ago.
The difficulties and the pros and cons of local government reorganiz-
ation have been dealt with in the Provincial-Municipal Report and need not be
repeated here, The vitally important thing is that the municipalities now
have the ball, are you going to make yards through the line of selfish pre-
judice, or are you going to fumble and lose the ball. Mr. Bole, a member of
the committee, will discuss these matters Friday morning during this course,
‘The President of the Secretary-Treasurers' Association, Mr, Byars, will dis
cuss with you the modernization of your office routines and procedures. Both
these matters were included in the course because of their vital importance.
Jast a word on community planning, Canada is developing rapidly as
a nation, In some degree all municipalities will share in this development,
Many municipalities would be well advised to now consider some planning for
their communities, because if it is left till later it will be more difficult
to obtain satisfactory results and more costly than if done now,
As municipal activities become more technical if you have cases where
technical advice is advisable or necessary, it is better to obtain such advice
and pay for it rather than make an error which will involve the municipality
in much greater costs.
V. Financ:
In any discussion with municipal people I could not entirely pass up the
subject of finance without a comment, Most of my views, 1 tink you know,
and they need not be repeated here. There are, however, two fundamental points
that I think I should draw to your attention,
Governments are the only institutions in business that ordinarily
have no capital or reserves, Originally they were supposed to do two things.
Budget for current expenditures and borrow for capital purposes. Because of
high interest rates and under certain conditions inability to borrow at all,
the idea was evolved that it would be good business to establish some cash
reserves, hence the enactment of section 629.
I quite often come across instances where municipalities because
they had reserves can borrow money at approximately 1%, when they used to pay
five or six, and recently a couple of instances where the municipalities were
faced with heavy capital expenditures they paid the liability in cash and made
5% for their ratepayers, instead of paying it to some investment syndicate.
In both cases these reserves are being replaced by levies because the muni-
cipalities concerned appreciate the value of having such reserves.
You budget for current expenditures and the time has come when you
should give thought to budgetting for capital purposes, By planning to raise
money in advance for heavy capital outlays you may be able to obtain public
improvements which would otherwise be beyond the ability of your municipality
to finance through investment channels,
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Incidentally in the future when you require validation of rate by-laws
we are going to insist that you use the prescribed foms of rate by-laws with
schedules and record of estimates,
VI, Sense of Responsibility
We are all prone to suffer from a very human frailty, If we are
faced with a difficult problem we try to duck it, If we have to make a decision
which we fear may be unpopular there is a tendency to try to pass the buck to
some one else, to some other municipality or to the Provincial or Federal
government,
When you took office, whether you then realized it or not, you assumed
certain responsibilities, I receive far too many conmunications from individuals
who claim they can't get a decision from their council about some matter that
is within the council's jurisdiction, If you do not measure up to your res~
ponsibilities they may be taken away from you.
I am also convinced that in the long run you will be more respected
and fare better at the next election if you practice saying "yes" or "no", and
give your reasons for your answer, You may antagonize a few, but the majority
will respect and support you,
When you were appointed an official of the municipality or elected
as a member of council you made and subscribed a declaration to the following
effect —
I, A.B., do solemnly promise and declare that I
will truly, faithfully and impartially to the best
of my knowledge and ability, execute the office of
(insert the name of the office) to which I have been
elected (or appointed) in the city (town, village,
rural municipality or municipal district) of
3 and that I have not received
and will not receive any payment or reward, or
promise of such, for the exercise of any partiality
or malversation or other undue execution of such
office, and (in case of mayor, reeve, alderman or
councillor) that I have not, by myself or partner,
either directly or indirectly, any interest in
any contract with or on behalf of the corporation,
We boast that we have responsible government, It can only be so if
every official and every elected member assumes his responsibility.
VII, Importance of Functions of Counci
Finally I am going to urge more formality and decorum in the conduct
of council business, While I am not referring specifically to a mace, robes
or chain of office, there is some virtue in these outward manifestations of
the prestige and importance of the functions councils perform, Order and dig-
nity are, however, absolutely essential.
How can you expect your electors to have much respect for or interest
in local government if the municipal office is not efficient and businesslike, or if
2A
council meetings are occasions for petty bickering between councillors, rather
than formal, dignified, intelligent procedures.
An adequate procedure by-law and observance and the enforcement of
rules of order and debate will do mich to create respect for and interest in
local government,
No doubt you were thrilled with the beauty of the ritual and pageantry
of the coronation, The time, effort and expense that was put into the coron-
ation was not for the purpose of producing a spectacle. The British people
have a keen insight into the workings of human nature and realize that the
principles of responsible democratic government can be better brought home to
minds and hearts of men by pageantry and ritual rather than by the dry
words of a statute or the tenents of a philosophy of government, I suggest
that it does no harm to remember this principle in carrying out the functions
of local government,
It was no accident that Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth in her coron-
ation message to her peoples this month used the following words.
"Therefore, I am sure that this, my coronation, is not a
symbol of a power and a splendor that are gone but a
declaration of our hopes for the future,
Parliamentary institutions, with their free speech and
respect for the rights of minorities, and the inspiration
of a broad tolerance in thought and its expression ~
all this we conceive to be a precious part of our way of
life and outlook.
I ask you now to cherish them ~ and to practice them, too,
Then we can go forward together in peace, seeking justice
and freedom for all men."
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THE PROVINGTAL-MUNICIPAL REPORT
by
PROFESSOR R,C, BELLAN
Broadly speaking, the Provincial-Nunicipal Committee, which presented
its report early this year, concerned itself with two main issues, One was the
financial difficulties currently being faced by municipalities, and the other.
was whether it would be advisable to enlarge school districts and municipalities
by grouping existing ones into larger units, Both of these problems appear
relatively simple on the surface, but fuller consideration reveals a great many
hidden difficulties and complexities which must be alloned for in any reason-
able solution,
‘The first problem - the need for improving municipal finances, in-
volves a number of fundamental and important principles of government, Generally
speaking all government services are aimed to benefit the people our goyern-
uents_ build roads. and bridges, schools and hospitals, maintain courts of justice,
police and armed forces for national defence; in addition our governnents
provide special assistance to those citizens who are in distress for one reason
or another, whether because they are old, sick, poor, or unemployed: There are
private charitable organizations which perform a great deal of useful work to
aid the distressed, but in modern times governments carry by far the largest
load. And of course in order to provide these various services to the public,
‘the government requires money - to buy necessary materials and to pay salaries -
and this money must be raised through taxation of the public in sone manner or
other.
We have in Canada three different levels of government, each designed
to deal with different aspects of our public affairs, When the citizens decide
that they would like their government to provide some particular service, they
must also decide which government shall be charged with the responsibility of
providing it: - the Federal, Provincial or Municipal. In this connection the
major consideration to be taken into account is efficiency of performance,
Which level of governnent can provide the service most efficiently will depend
on the nature of the service, If it is desired to provide an absolutely uni-
form service right across the country, with no variations whatever from the
set standard, then it would be desirable to have the program administered by
Federal officials. On the other hand if it is felt that the need for the ser-
vice varies greatly from one individual to another and from one locality to
another, then it would be best to have the program handled by local men who
are familiar with the local situation and can make desirable adjustments to
suit local needs.
It is through common-sense reasoning such as this that we have arrived +
at our present allocation of responsibilities among the three levels of govern-
ment, under which the Federal Government, is held responsible {or such matters
National Defence, the Postal Service, Family Allowances; provincial govern—
else:
ments are responsible for such matters as roads and highways, labor, the ad-
‘inistration of the law; and municipal governments are responsible for local
improvements, fire and police protection, social welfare, and the financing
Sfeducation.| It is not always possible to establish clear-cut lines of demar-
cation; in the administration of some public services, two and sometimes all
three governments participate, Thus both provincial and municipal governnents
share in the administration of our educational system, while the federal, pro-
wincial and municipal governments all provide social welfare services.,
No matter which government assumes responsibility for a public service
the cost will be borne by the public, For the public pays the various taxes
which support all three levels of government, The taxpayer enjoys no net gain
when responsibility for some service is transferred from one level of govern-
ment to another; he will as a result of such a transfer pay less taxes to one
government, but more taxes to another, His overall tax burden will not fall,
and may even increase. This will in fact certainly happen when the respon-
sibility is transferred from that level of government which is best fitted to
handle the job, to another level of government which will handle the job less
efficiently, ‘The cost is bound to go up and so therefore are the taxes.
It would be shortsighted for instance to assist the municipalities
by taking away from them responsibilities which they are best qualified to
administer, and handing these over to federal or provincial departments which
would do the job less efficiently, and at higher cost. Our municipal taxes
might fall, but our federal or provincial taxes would rise by more than the
reduction in municipal taxes, and we would find in the long run that we were
worse off than before, That is why in our own interests we must ensure that
each level of government concentrates on doing only those jobs for which it is
best suited, and that one level of government should not be made responsible
for a service which is best handled by another, Any such uneconomical shift
of responsibility will only create fresh problems which in due course will
prove more troublesome than the original problems we were trying to solve.
Having determined what services each level of government is to ad~
minister, the next-step is to ensure that each government has sufficient money
to finance its responsibilities. We have tried to arrange this in Canada by
allocating certain tax fields to each kind of government; the Federal govern-
ment collects the sales tax, income tax, corporation profits tax, succession
duties and customs duties; provincial governments collect gasoline taxes,
vehicle license fees, amusement taxes and liquor profits, which are in effect
a tax on liquor; municipalities obtain practically all of their tax revenues
from taxation of the real property located within their boundaries, On exam-
ination it will be noted that the taxes collected by each level of government
are generally those vhich it is in the best position to collect; thus the
municipality is obviously best qualified to levy and collect property taxes,
the province is best qualified to levy license fees and amusement taxes, while
the Federal government is in the best position to collect corporation profits
taxes, income taxes, the sales tax and so on, Our system of taxation is by no
means ideal in this regard, but we have effected substantial improvements in
recent years, ‘Thus until recently most provincial governments were levying
corporation profits taxes and successicn duties, and some were levying income
taxes as well, They were not really in a good position to levy these taxes
equitably and efficiently, and furthermore their taxes in these fields dup-
licated the taxes levied by the Federal government, The Tax-Rental Agreements
signed between the Federal government and all the provinces, except Quebec,
ees
have now fortunately eliminated this duplication and inefficiency. @
Thus the general objective of the Canadian constitution has been to
allocate to each level of government those responsibilities which it was best
qualified to administer, and to allocate also to each level of government. those
‘taxes which it could collect most efficiently and conveniently, Obviously such
an arrangement gives rise to the possibility that some governments will not be
able to raise from their tax resources all the revenue which they require to
meet the responsibilities placed upon them, while other governments might have
more revenue than they require. From the very beginning the tax revenues avail-
able to the provincial governments were insufficient to meet their needs, and
‘the Federal government adopted the practice of giving cash subsidies to the
provinces in order to enable them to meet their commitments. Junicipalities
las well have generally been unable to finance all their responsibilities from
their tax sources, and have always depended on financial grants from their
respective provincial governments to make up the deficiencies, Of course any
arrangements made, however satisfactory at the time, are bound to become
obsolete with the passage of time and changing circumstances. Because of the
general inflationary pressure of the last few years and the sharply increased
demands for municipal services, the municipalities of Manitoba - like those in
all provinces - have been experiencing very great financial strain and there-
fore demanded that the provincial government give them more assistance than it
has done in the past. The Provincial-Municipal Conmittee was organized pri-
marily to ascertain just how municipal costs had increased and how much addition-
al assistance the province ought now to provide to them,
One important decision which the Committee had to make concerned the
form in which the increased aid should be given, for three alternative methods
were available, (Firstly the province might ease municipal burdens by t:
over some of the municipalities' responsibilities, We have already observed
however that this would not be a satisfactory solution, since it would mean
that these responsibilities would be less efficiently administered, because
provincial officials would not have the required familiarity with the local
Scene, and would not be able to adjust their procedures in a flexible manner
to suit each local situation. Costs would certainly go up, and the citizens
of Manitoba would therefore ultimately be paying more taxes for the same services.
wThe(second course of action would be for the province to allot more
sources of revenue to the municipalities, thus enabling them to raise the
additional funds they required. But this solution would not be satisfactory
either. Jt would mean that municipalities would be levying taxes which they were
‘not well Suited to levy, and this could result in inequities and high collection
“costs, In this regard it has been frequently suggested that the province should
share some of its taxes - notably the gasoline tax and liquor profits - with the |
municipalities, but such a procedure would inevitably involve very complicated -
and questionable - bookkeeping, besides possibly giving rise to an inappropriate
distribution of revenue,
There is g third) method by which the province might assist the muni-
cipalities, and this isthe method which, quite rightly in my opinion, the
province has chosen to adopt. By this method the province continues to ad~
minister only those responsibilities for which it is best fitted, while the
municipality remains responsible for all those services which are best handled
at the municipal level, Furthermore the province levies all those taxes which
are most conveniently collected on a provincial basis, while the municipalities
2gis
levy only those taxes which they can collect conveniently and efficiently.
Since however the tax resources of the municipality would be inadequate for its
needs the province would make financial grants to cover the deficiency. Under
such an arrangement each level of governnent only does the work it is best
fitted to do, and only levies those taxes it is best qualified to collect,
Another decision which had to be made was whether such provincial
grants should be distributed equally to all municipalities - on say a per
capita basis, - or whether poorer municipalities should be given proportionately
more, In this regard the provincial government has always adhered to the
principle of fiscal need, that is, of giving extra assistance to the less wealthy
municipalities; the citizens of this province have always considered this the
fair and reasonable thing to do. Once the decision is made however to give
extra help to less wealthy municipalities, it becomes necessary to establish
some standard by which to judge which municipalities are wealthy and which are
not, The procedure followed in Manitoba has always been to adjudge the wealth
of a municipality by its real property assessment, While this is an obvious and
reasonable basis whereby to judge the financial need of municipalities, it has
not been too reliable an indicator in the past owing to the fact that each
municipality had carried out its own assessment, ‘There has consequently been
no uniformity in assessment procedure, with the result that the same amount
of real property might bear different assessments in different municipalities.
‘The Equalization Board has done an excellent job of putting assessment figures
on a comparable basis, but the real need has been for a single assessor who
would carry out an assessment of the whole province according to one standard,
Fortunately such a work is in progress now and should be completed within a
few years; one recommendation of the Provincial-Municipal Committee was that
the Provincial Assessor who is doing this job, be given additional staff in
order to make possible completion at an earlier date,
Another decision which had to be made was whether the province should
grant lump sums to the municipalities which they might spend in any way they
sam fit, or whether assistance should take the form of grants earmarked for
specific purposes, The province has always followed the latter procedure,
making specific grants toward education, road construction, welfare costs and
so on, Of these grants, the largest by far has always been the education grant
to school districts, and of the $3.7 millions of additional money which the
report recommended the province to pay out, some $2.4 millions is in the form
of an increase in the education grant, Because of its size and importance the
education grant has been used by the province as the means of carrying out its
policy of giving extra aid to less wealthy municipalities. While all the other
grants are distributed on a more or less uniform basis, without regard to the
fiscal need of the recipient municipalities, the education grant is adjusted
on the basis of the assessment per schoolroom in each school district, with
school districts having a low assessment per room receiving larger grants.
‘The other major issue with which the Provincial-Municipal Committee
concerned itself was the size of local government units, with special reference
to the Greater Winnipeg area, and to rural municipalities, A Sub-committee
which studied the situation in Greater Winnipeg, recommended that the city and
all the suburbs combine to set up a Metropolitan Board which would have complete
Jurisdiction over all services wnich were of concern to more than one muni~
cipality, and which required coordinated action, The Sub-committee considered
Si6i<
however that a complete amalgamation of all the municipalities would be un-
desirable; under the arrangement proposed by the Sub-committee the city and the
suburban municipalities would continue to operate their own school systems, fire
and police departments, and look after some local improvements. ‘The Metro-
politan Board would control zoning, the layout of streets, sewers and water
lines, the construction of bridges and any other matters which required co-
ordinated action,
While the Sub-committee recommended against complete amalgamation in-
to one city, it did point out that several of the existing suburban municipalities
were too stall to operate independently and efficiently, and considered that
where several small suburbs adjoined one another they might be grouped together
to form a single municipality, with beneficial results, The Sub-committee re-
commended that studies be undertaken of the feasibility of such amalgamations,
and suggested three possible amalgamations which were specially worthy of con-
sideration,
Another Sub-committee considered the problems of rural areas, It
concluded that many existing municipalities were too small for present day
conditions; they had been organized years ago when means of communication were
poor, and it was impossible to administer public affairs effectively over a
large area, Nowadays however, thanks to the telephone and automobile, it is
possible to carry out effective administration over much larger areas, while at
the same time larger municipalities are able to provide better service to their
people. Large municipalities for instance can afford to buy the largest and
most efficient equipment for road construction and maintenance; they can hire
superior staff and use their staff more effectively, ‘The Sub-committee con-
sidered that under modern conditions in Manitoba, a rural municipality should
include 15 to 18 townships, with 300 to LOO thousand taxable acres, and a
population up to 6000 persons,
On the other hand several members of the Provincial-lunicipal Com-
mittee as a whole, while conceding the arguments in favor of larger rural
municipalities, pointed out that there would be considerable opposition at the
present time to any attempts to group rural municipalities into larger units,
and suggested that it might be advisable to wait until the people were prepared
to accept a re-organization, rather than to impose it on them,
In respect to education the rural Sub-committee recommended that each
rural municipality be considered as a single school district, and that any un
incorporated villages or towms within the area be included in the school district.
This school district would have its board, which would assume full responsiblity
for secondary education throughout the entire area, and would supervise the ad-
ministration and financing of primary schools in the area covered. The existing
local school boards would continue to be responsible however for the location of
primary schools, teacher selection, and other matters of primarily local concern,
The above are some of the highlights of the Provincial-Municipal Com-
mittee's report, It remains only to add my own belief that the Committee did
an excellent job. Here was a case of public-spirited men who had a great deal
of experience and familiarity with the situation getting together to figure out
how they might best deal with their common problems, and working out solutions
that were sane, reasonable and realistic, It was a splendid demonstration of
democracy in action,
saps
THE IMPLICATIONS OF THE WELFARE STATE: ECONOMIC, SOCIAL, AND POLITICAL
by
MR, H.C, PENTLAND
Your program indicates that you have already discussed many practical
and immediate aspects of welfare, and will discuss more of them, The topic
which I have been given ~ The Implications of the Welfare State - may appear
remote in comparison, and intangible or even nebulous. Yet the questions be-
hind my pretentious title are fundamental: What are the main historical and
philosophical trends of our time, with which our day-to-day activities will
have to fit? Can or should these trends be reversed? The problem is to orient
ourselves in a complicated and changing world. I hope that my remarks, and
still more, your discussion, will assist with that orientation,
‘The term "Welfare State" has come into use since about the end of
the Second World War. It has been used chiefly by opponents of the Welfare
State, as a term of derision, and also to suggest novelty, Yet, in fact,
nearly all societies have been welfare states: that is, they have intervened
in economic and social affairs through the agency of government with the object
of improving the general welfare. A major exception was Great Britain in the
nineteenth century, which swept away many economic controls, and subsidies to
particular industries, as well as the state system of poor relief descended
from the Elizabethan Poor Law. But even nineteenth-century Britain limited
hours of work in factories, required safety devices in mines, set up codes of
sanitation to protect health, and provided for free compulsory education,
Yet it is true that our times exhibit a profound difference from the
nineteenth century, not so much as yet in what we do, as in the climate of
public attitudes and opinions, In the last century the influential people,
at least, were inclined to say that governments should not intervene in econ-
omic or social affairs until it had been demonstrated that there was a clear
advantage in their doing so, The cases for which intervention was advantageous
were held to be exceptional, Today, on the other hand, the great majority of
citizens everywhere believe that governments should intervene to raise the
general welfare, If there is some matter in which governments should not
intervene, this is the exception, and the advantage of not intervening must be
demonstrated, ‘The trend towards intervention has proceeded along three lines,
First, there has been a movement towards comprehensive "Cradle to the Grave"
systems of social security against the various risks that threaten individuals
through no fault of their own, Secondly, since the 1930's, there is the demand
that governments ensure a high level of employment through appropriate fiscal
and monetary policies, Thirdly, there is everywhere an immense amount and
variety of government assistance to parts of the society that are alleged to
be weak or handicapped, on the general ground of welfare, In the United States -
I select that country because many speeches against the Welfare State emanate
from it - there is the Tennessee Valley Authority for the South, water control
and rural electrification for the West, parity prices for the farmers, credit
- 18 -
and many other services for the businessmen, subsidies for the ship-owners; and
there was, till recently, price controls for the consumers, Every other country
exhibits similar phenomena, They are the products of a general demand that
governments shall transform societies, particularly in the direction of greater
equality - equality of opportunity, and equality in fact,
There are some opponents of the Welfare State, few but influential,
There also is a case against the Welfare State which I should like to state
shortly. But what is chiefly heard these days are the voices of men who be~
Lieve thoroughly in the Welfare State, but attack some forms of it, In par-
ticular, supporters of the American Welfare State, operated chiefly for the
benefit of businessmen, farmers, and veterans, are wont to attack the British
Welfare State, operated chiefly for the benefit of workingmen, Attacks which
purport to be on the Welfare State in general, but are really directed against
a particular form of it, necessarily involve some confusion and some false
issues, It will clear the ground to deal with the principles of the Welfare
State, if we dispose of some of these false issues now.
Sone False Issues - Attacks on the Welfare State seek just now to capitalize on
the high level of government expenditures everywhere, and the correspondingly
high taxes which antagonize the citizens who must pay them, But it simply is
not true that most of this money goes for social welfare - which, indeed, has
as yet been little provided for in Canada, On the contrary, the money goes for
wart present war, past wars, and preparation for future wars. A more approp-
riate name for the state in which we live than "Welfare State" would be "War
State" or "Defence State"; and if you think the expenditure is excessive, the
proper field in which to argue your view is not welfare, but foreign policy.
‘A great trouble with payments on account of war is that we can rarely have
anything tangible, any goods and services, to show for them, and so the payments
bear painfully upon us.
I have calculated back to 1926 the proportion which welfare expend-
itures bear to total governmental expenditure, and to the National Income
(Gross National Product), and have been surprised to find how very little wel-
fare expenditure has risen over that period. For the past few years, welfare
payments have made up about 20% of the total expenditure of the federal govern
ment, and of all Canadian governments, and they constituted about 5% of our
National Income, Expenditure for past, present, and future, wars, on the other
hand, took last year over 50% of all federal expenditure, and about 11% of the
National Income, The amounts spent on welfare in recent years, measured either
in terms of total governmental expenditure or of National Income, have run well
below the proportions we spent in the mid-thirties, The same is true, inciden-
tally, of the United States, where also welfare expenditures are far exceeded
by war expenditures. What may give the impression that welfare spending has
increased recently is that this form of expenditure fell to very low levels
during the war years; so low, indeed, that the proportion of governmental
expenditure devoted to welfare was twice as much away back in the 1920's, as in
those years; though the proportion of National Income then used for welfare was
slightly smaller, It is plain that, so far as social welfare spending is
concerned, we have not much more of a Welfare State now than we had thirty
years ago. Indeed, the only striking program of welfare activities in this
Province was introduced by the Norris Government near the end of the First
World War,
A second false argument is that expenditure for welfare is, like
S79
expenditure for war, wasted from the viewpoint of returning goods and services,
For some individuals, especially wealthy ones, the returns may be much less
than the costs, But for society as a whole, the dividends in healthier chil-
dren, illness and accident avoided, disabilities overcome, employment maintained,
are immense, and do find their reflection in higher levels of output.
A third false argument is that the economy cannot afford much social
security. This may be true in very primitive economies. The Eskimos and
Indians had sometimes to abandon their old people, because there was not enough
food for all to survive, In much of Asia, it is a nice question whether wel-
fare expenditure to relieve distress is worth-while; for if people are kept
alive this year, population presses harder on the food supply, and more will
die next year, Perhaps all available resources should be used to improve pro~
ductive equipment, so that a larger population may survive permanently in the
future, But these considerations have no application here. It is thoroughly
unrealistic to suggest that a country so rich as Canada cannot afford to re~
lieve all her people of want,
The Alternative to the Welfare State - Nevertheless, there is a case against
the Welfare State; or rather, a theoretical alternative to it, When Mr, Arthur
Meighen declares that he detests the Welfare State, not because he opposes
welfare, but because he is in favor of it, I am sure that he is sincere, The
alternative form of society which is claimed also to provide for welfare- even
to offer the most possible welfare - is the anarchist uncontrolled economy
operated solely by or through the price system, conceived in the eighteenth
century, and put into a considerable degree of operation in English-speaking
countries, and a few others, in the nineteenth. Thestudy of the workings of an
uncontrolled price system is an important part of Economics; though it is not
true, as sone seem to believe, either than economists give unqualified rever-
ence to this kind of an economy, or that this is the only kind of economy they
study.
In the early nineteenth century, the uncontrolled price economy, in
which every thing and every person was subject to and valued by the market, was
hailed with an enthusiasm that is found today only among supporters of the
Welfare State, What, then, did our ancestors see in it? Negatively, they saw
a means to sweep away the worn-out barriers of feudalism, In the new world of
market prices, every man would enjoy the novelty of choosing any calling he
wished; and those successful in business would claim the social position pre-
viously denied them because they were not born gentlemen, Positively, the
market, system was a panacea for all ills. If supplies ran short, rising prices
would invite enterprising people to dig new mines or plant new fields, whilst
they rationed the limited supply to those in greatest need. Over-supply would
lower prices, increase consumption, and drive the least efficient producers to
other fields, Accumulated profits would be invested in new enterprises, the
right proportion among investment outlets being maintained by relative pro-
fitability, and the right proportion between investment and consumption by the
interest rate. Automatically, the system would reward efficiency and punish
inefficiency, Every person would have the opportunity to win the success to
which his talent entitled him, being perfectly free to seek another job or to
start his own business, The industrious would do well, the lazy and incompet-
ent would suffer their merited fate, Since all economic activity would be
forced to the highest possible point of efficiency by the price system, govern-
nent interference could only do ham, Governments would confine themselves to
the protection of property and persons, and the enforcement of contracts. ‘The
= 20
watchwords of this projected society were "Freedom" and "Equality". This is
the welfare state of the nineteenth-century liberal.
The Case for the Twentieth-Century Welfare State - To state the logic of the
nineteenth-century welfare state is to demonstrate how little people believe
in it today, and how far it failed to realize its promise. ‘The failures are a
good part of the case for the twentieth-century Welfare State, though not the
explanation for its rise,
Though the price system works very well in some cases, it works badly
in others, As an example, high and low prices do not help much to increase or
curtail the supply of and demand for wheat, because both supply and demand are
governed by factors that respond little to price changes, and may respond in
the wrong direction when they react at all. Adjustments, when they are made,
are slow and difficult,
Again, the governor that was to keep the nineteenth-century welfare
state in balance, competition, has never existed in sufficient degree to pro-
tect consumers and workingmen, and to ensure efficiency and equality of oppor-
tunity, in the manner forecast, I do not know whether a world full of com-
petition would really be very pleasant, But whatever chance of this there ever
was, has been destroyed by the rise of standardized mass production, requiring
very large producers, and therefore only a few of them.
Then, the nineteenth-century dream of Equality was made unrealizable
by the accumulation, still more the inheritance, of great fortunes, Nor is it
only wealth that is inherited, but education and influence, too, About 1830,
it was realized that you could not have both Freedom and Equality in the liberal
state, but must choose between them, This was an easy choice for the successful
businessman, He chose Freedom - freedom, that is, for the business man, But
the workingman described this freedom, perhaps with some exaggeration, as the
freedom to starve. For the farmer, it often meant the freedom to remain in
poverty and debt.
Even if we must suffer great inequalities, we may believe that the
good will flourish, the wicked perish, and that this is fair enough, But it
certainly is not true now, if it ever was, that most citizens believe the re-
wards of this world to be proportionate to the merits of the recipients, If
anything, the conviction is the other way round: that the wicked grow rich
and the virtuous stay poor. Wealth acquired by inheritance, by fraud, and by
luck; the importance of "influence" and "good connections", especially in the
heirarchy of corporate society; the inconsistency that one fellow happens to
get a good job or a good crop, while another draws a poor job or a poor crop;
all these nourish the view that society is inequitable and should be made more
equitable. So far has this view taken hold, I think, that we are in danger of
underestimating the effectiveness of inequalities of income as incentives, and
of neglecting the salutary effects of purging an industry of inefficient pro-
ducers, whether it is a capitalist or a government official who carries out the
purge.
These are some of the reasons, then, that the nineteenth century
dream of a welfare state faded, to be replaced by today's dreams of a different
Kind of Welfare State. This, too, may prove a disappointment to many. Per-,
fection, absolute freedom, absolute equality, complete security, are not attain-
able in the nature of things. All we can hope for is more freedom, equality,
and security, rather than less,
-a-
It may be thought that I am trying toanswer, or that I should try to
answer the question, "Is the twentieth-century Welfare State a good thing? Is
it to be preferred to the nineteenth-century welfare state?" Therefore 1 had
better say, before closing this section, that I do not think it useful to ask
this question, nor possible to answer it, Electoral contests between political
parties, some supposed to be friendly and some antagonistic to the Welfare State,
may foster the impression that there really is a choice between the old and the
new welfare states, Yet, this seems to me to be an illusion, What is really
significant is that any party aspiring to office must preach welfare in the
modern sense, and practice it too; that events force governnents to intervene
repeatedly in economic and social affairs, whatever their own theories and de-
sires, I conclude, therefore, that it is no more useful to ask whether the
Welfare State is a good thing than whether the tides are a good thing; nor more
helpful to ask if the Welfare State should be encouraged than whether gravity
should be encouraged. I think the Welfare State is coming - though it can hardly
be said to have arrived in Canada - and that we are wasting our tine if we try
to stop it.
‘The Forces behind the Welfare State - Let us turn now to ask why we live in an
age of extending governmental activity oriented to welfare. T have seen many
answers: the blame has been put on the French Revolution, the Russian Revol-
ution, on war, depression, democracy, communism, and industrialism, All these
things, and more, have some connection with the Welfare State. I should like
to suggest some other factors, however, which I believe to be more fundamental.
First, let us get our question straight. The best question is not,
“why in this twentieth century is there increasing governnent intervention?",
because a high degree of social control and income redistribution has been the
normal arrangement through most of man's history, and it could be answered that
we are merely reverting to our usual form, The anomolous, peculiar period was
the nineteenth century. Scarcely anything like it can be found in history.
The really interesting question is, "Why did the nineteenth century depend so
mich on the price system, limited government activity, and every man for him-
self’
If you enquire what was different about the nineteenth century you
will find two things. One is an extraordinarily rapid rate of population
growth, The other is a rapid - indeed, reckless and wasteful - use of hitherto
unused natural resources. New techniques also were required to exploit these
new resources, but I think their development was more of an effect than a cause,
The extensive use of new supplies of natural resources, particularly
when there was no thought of conserving any for the requirements of posterity,
meant that it was possible to have a rising standard of living for a rapidly
growing population. It meant also expansion, the settlement of new areas, the
growth of cities, and the making of quick fortunes. This is not a situation in
which governments are likely to spread their poner and adapt their activities
as quickly as ordinary people move. Nor are these the conditions in which men
are very concerned to have governmental poner extended. Those who do not want
government to interfere with their success are likely to be more influential
than those who want government to mitigate their failure,
The other factor I mentioned is rapid population growth, and I think
it explains rather more, People are the most valuable resource, the least-
replaceable capital, the most complicated and productive machines, that have
Spos
ever existed. But what is the attitude when there are any number of people,
when the fear is not that they will be too few, but that a torrent of babies
will engulf us, will eat us out of house and home, when people are almost what
an economist calls, "a free good"? You can find such conditions today, as in
India, where the great threat to every project for improvement is that the
population will grow faster, In these circumstances, man's attitude to man is
likely to become, perhaps not callous, but practical. With so many people, no
one worries about maintaining the production of them, or of looking after them
when they pass working age. If millions die in infancy, or illness, or pre-
mature old age, that is perhaps a blessing from the social point of view. Nor
is there good reason for employers to pay members of an inexhaustible working
class more than a subsistence wage. The situation is much like the one that
would face a farmer if cattle insisted upon breeding at an astronomical rate,
and he could have as many as he wanted to milk without any other cost than their
daily hay. What farmer then would worry for the dying calf, the sick cow, or
the one too old for milking? Why would anyone in authority be concerned about
social welfare, except perhaps for fear of revolution? The wonder is not that
the nineteenth century accepted a law of the jungle, but that so mch humanity
survived,
If we consider, with this background, how differently we are situated
in the twentieth century, the Welfare State becomes more meaningful. Babies,
once many and unwanted, are now few and precious. The ill, the disabled, the
old, the unemployed - formerly an undesired surplus that would be better out of
the way - are now a valuable reserve of scarce manpower. Private enterprise
tried to exhaust the world's natural resources in a one-century binge. Now
society, through the agency of government, must try toconserve what is left,
restore what can be restored, develop marginal supplies that do not promise big
profits, prevent wastefully competitive investments even though firms want to
make them, and in general, manage society's affairs more carefully, The tasks
of government are accentuated in countries straining to catch up with more ad-
vanced neighbors, or to protect their raw materials from rapid exhaustion by
those neighbors; for in general, governments are the only agencies capable of
taking the effective action demanded by the citizens.
The Implications of the Welfare State - Finally, if the Welfare State is to be
our portion, whether we like it or not, what are the implications, "Economic,
Social, and Political"?
First, a warning against discounting entirely the importance which
economists and nineteenth-century liberals have attached to the price system,
There really are, and will continue to be, economic forces more powerful than
governments, which cannot be ignored with safety, though they can often be con-
trolled and channelled if intelligence is applied. I do not refer only to those
simple economic axioms: that you cannot have your cake and eat it too, you
cannot use the sane resources for consumption and investment, for consump-
tion and war; though illusions that these things are possible, arising out of
money mirages, are painfully hard to break. Just as vital are the facts that
governments cannot force prices up when supplies are plentiful, or force them
down when supplies are short, or get goods produced at low prices, just by
saying so. All these things can be done, but only by exerting pressure within
the rules of the price system, by taking goods off the market, or rationing, or
subsidies, and by meeting the costs of these. It was a prevalent error in the
1930's that the price system is perfect and all-powerful, and that government
intervention is necessarily useless and pernicious, in face of clear evidence
33:8
to the contrary, I fear that a standard error of the present generation may
be that governments can do anything, and that economic forces are of no con-
sequence, 1f you can combat that error, you may help Canada to avoid costly
mistakes.
Secondly, I think that in the new society of elaborate government, in-
tervention, political pressures will count for more, and direct economic pres-
sures for less. Particularly will this be so if governments insist upon de-
termining the wages and working conditions of labor. Business men have always
been alert to exert group pressure on governments. In recent decades, farmers
have formed solid pressure groups, to secure price supports and other forms of
social security which they desire. But up to now, in Canada, the most numerous
element in society - the wage-earners - have been next to impotent politically.
With labor split into several congresses, and apathetic to political parties,
it has been apparent to all that no labor leader can deliver a labor vote, and
that political leaders need make few concessions to labor. The reason for this,
I think, is that the Canadian workingman has believed up to now that the im-
portant things are got by direct economic pressure, and that politics do not
matter much, But as soon as you remove the power to exert direct economic
pressure, as soon as wage-setting is clearly a political function, you will
have the workingmen solidly in politics. They will dominate the state, and the
Welfare State will becone one primarily concerned about the wage-eamer, with
the emphasis on equality. But the workingman is not a bad fellow, and this
may turn out to be a pleasant kind of state.
‘Thirdly, as society undertakes more obligations towards the indivi-
dual, the individual will owe more obligations to society. If, under nine-
teenth-century anarchism, society owed nothing to the citizen, it was also true
in theory, and nearly so in practice, that the individual owed nothing to others.
But as society guarantees employment and education and health, it will also have
to demand from the individual, good work, devotion to study, and personal
cleanliness,
And last, the Welfare State will have a great deal of decentralization,
an important place for local administrators like yourselves. Your functions
may change, but you are likely to get more new ones than you lose old ones, You
may consider this far-fetched, if you have been raised on the view that de-
centralization is only possible under the price system, and that increasing
government intervention means centralization and the atrophy of local govern-
ment, Consider, however, that the price system itself has involved enormous
centralization, in London, and Wall Street, and corporation head offices,
Consider that decentralization rests less on principle than on the sheer in
possibility of regulating everything from the centre; that the same increasing
complexity of society that makes central co-ordination seem essential, also
makes decentralization more urgent. Have you ever mused on the monstrous pro-
blems of those at the centre - say, the members of the Soviet Planning Bureau?
They can co-ordinate an over-all plan, but they depend upon hundreds of thou-
sands of local officials to provide them with information, to apply the plan
intelligently in their neighborhood, and to carry it out. The more complex and
centralized a society becomes, the more truly it is only as strong and coherent
as its smallest parts, The more things to make decisions about, the more
necessary that as many decisions as possible be made as far from the centre as
possible, Local government, local activity, and local enterprise have a great
future,
Sette
THE NEW RULES OF RESIDENCE
by
MISS M.B, McMURRAY
Relief is an ever present protlem as well as a complex problem, It is
extremely difficult to draft legislation that will adequately and fairly cover
every case, For example, it is possible to pass legislation growing out of one
case which the Municipality involved feels is an injustice. Under the same rule
at some future date, that Municipality may be held responsible for five other
families,
Then too, it is difficult to imagine all the sets of circumstances in
which it may be necessary to find residence, For example, the old rules of
residence provided that if the parents were separated from each other, the child
took the place of the parent with whom he was living. How about the case where
the parents are separated and the child is not living with either parent?
Then there is the problem of the abandoned child. Perhaps one thinks
of an abandoned child as one left on the doorstep of some kindly individual or
charitable organization, What about the child for whom a parent pays board for
weeks or months and then disappears and the child becomes a public charge?
The problem of the transitnt resident is a perennial sore spot to the
municipalities. If a family has resided in a community for a number of years
and had been good citizens before becoming a public charge, the Municipality
accepts such a case with good grace, However, it would seem that the majority
of people who seek relief are not responsible citizens whose residence has been
more or less permanent in some municipality, but rather indigent transients some
of whom may move from municipality to municipality and in a period of twenty-five
years acquire no residence in any municipality. Under the former rules such
transients could acquire residence in a municipality by being self-supporting
therein for sixty days, Since such transients sometimes had very large families
they proved a heavy burden on the municipality held responsible.
Under the new rules the policy of the Government has been to re-allocate
much of the relief costs from the Municipality to the Province, It should be
borne in mind honever, that regardless of location, the burden is still carried
by the taxpayer and therefore the importance of the municipalities including
preventive social work in their respective programs cannot be over estimated,
Pushing undesirable people about from municipality to municipality offers no
solution,
Another social problem which must be faced realistically is responsi-
bility for Indians who leave the federal reservation and acquire residence in
a municipal corporation, In conference with representatives of the Federal
Department of Indian Affairs I note a decided trend towards Indians in receipt
of treaty leaving the reservation and taking up residence outside the reser-
~ 5 -
vation, ‘The Department of Indian Affairs takes the stand that those Indians
who have gained residence in other municipalities or elsewhere in the province
other than on Indian Reservations, are making a contribution through taxation
to Provincial and Municipal revenues in the same manner as non-Indians, there-
fore, they would seem justified in making a claim on those financial resources
designated for social welfare purposes when they are in need of such assistance.
Indeed, if one views these trends with a long range point of view, it is not
beyond the realm of possibility that the time may come when we may expect to
absorb the Indian population into our school and municipal systems. In the
meantime, the new Act places the responsibility for Indians who have not ac~
quired municipal residence, on the Province.
There is also the question of responsibility for relief for the fam-
ilies of our peacetime army which now becomes a responsibility of the Province.
Accordingly, under the new rules the Province becones responsible for residents
of Indian Reservations and Defence Camps, for transients and abandoned children,
One other vital change in the rules is that periods on relief con-
stitute dead time but do not break continuous residence in a municipality.
What this will mean in dollars and cents to the municipalities remains to be
seen. My experience since the new Rules came into effect on dune 1st indicates
that recipients of relief tend to move about the Province as transients during
periods of non-relief and the municipalities will be protected by the provision
that, eliminating the relief periods there must still be 365 days of continuous
residence in any one municipality.
I have outlined to you the policy of the new rules and the policy of
the Government, and ir, O'Brien representing the City of Winnipeg, which has
the heaviest relief bill of any municipality in Manitoba, will outline to you
in detail how the new Rules may be expected to affect a municipal corporation.
- 26 -
THE NEW RULES OF RESIDENCE
by
MR, G, V, O'BRIEN
In thinking over just what phase of the new residence rules might be
reviewed this morning, it appeared likely that the paramount question in the
minds of municipal officials would be whether changes from the old rules meant
possible savings in dollars and cents, and whether they offered protection from
future liability. We will, therefore, look at some of the new rules to see what
the picture is in that respect.
Under old rule 1 (b), which was commonly known as the sixty-day resi-
dence clause, municipalities were often held liable for relief, hospitalization
and even child care, when the person or family concerned had lived in the
Municipality for just over two months. In the City of Winnipeg, a check of
cases handled in 1952 indicated that the cost for this type of case alone was
approximately $30,000.00 for "relief" only, but many other municipalities were
obliged to assume costs on a relative basis, We can recall one case wherein
a transient harvester came to the province and worked around one municipality
for some 76 days and on leaving, rode the freights and suffered an injury re-
sulting in the loss of a leg. As a consequence there was a heavy hospital
account, followed by a lengthy period of relief, pending his recuperation and
rehabilitation, all of which was held to be the responsibility of the muni-
cipality concerned by virtue of the short period lived therein. Another ex-
ample was a displaced person, who came to Canada in 1949, who has, by virtue
of his movements, becone the responsibility, for relief purposes, of two muni-
cipalities. The first account was $608,20 and the second $1,657.91, and in
this instance, the residence was 76 days in the first municipality and 173
days in the second,
In future such cases will be recognized as the responsibility of the
Government of Manitoba, A further expense vas involved in connection with the
sixty-day rule, when there was litigation over responsibility. I have person-
ally attended court hearings where, on many occasions, three solicitors re~
presenting different municipalities were present; on some occasions where four
municipalities were represented, but the prize case was one where no less than
five were involved. With the abolition of this clause in the new residence re~
gulations this difficulty will be overcome and should prove beneficial from a
financial standpoint. Municipalities previously unaffected in this respect
were fortunate, but there was always the possibility of them running into the
expense involved in court actions. The possibility is apparent, however, that
additional expense will be encountered by the Government who will undoubtedly
require legal representation in almost every case, There will be instances
where the Government may be concerned on the same day in cases being heard in
Winnipeg, Portage and Brandon, for example, and it is obvious that even Miss
McMurray, for all her known learning, will not be able to be in all places at
the same time to avoid the hiring of additional legal help.
= oF
It will be further noted that the new rules allow for the acquiring
of residence in defence camps or reserves, in which event, the liability falls
on the Government of Manitoba, and municipalities in which such military es-
tablishments, Indian reserves or forest reserves are located need no longer be
concerned with persons or families residing therein, In connection with cases
of this kind, the cost for relief and hospital care over the past few years
have reached an astounding figure. We will later refer to our experience in
Winnipeg in connection with some of these cases who came to the City from such
camps.
Under the new rules, a legal residence in a corporation means one con-
tinuous year lived therein in the three years under review and unless this re-
quirement is met, responsibility will henceforth be accepted by the Government
of Manitoba, The same acceptance of responsibility by the Government will apply
in the case of a married woman living separate and apart from her husband for
over three years, who has not gained such a residence in her own right and
again, in the case of a person other than an adult, in other words a minor, who
has been living separate from his parents for over three years, and who has not
gained the necessary continuous one year's residence,
As a general rule, municipal corporations have come to recognize one
year as being reasonable and where such a residence has been acquired normally
feel sone legitimate responsibility, Honever, it was difficult to look favour-
ably upon payment of welfare or hospital costs on behalf of women or children
who had been away from their municipality for years, but where, due to the
husband being an inmate, for example, of a mental institution, the residence
was frozen to the qualifications of the husband at the time he was admitted,
We can cite two known cases of this type, one of which affected the City, and
the other a town, A man who had residence in Winnipeg, went to the mental
hospital at Selkirk in 1922, His wife remained in Winnipeg until 1932, when
she moved away. Although the woman was self-supporting in general, apart from
hospital accounts from time to time, and despite the fact that she remained in
the one municipality, the City has continued to pay nospital costs right up to
the present time. In another instance, a man having residence in an incor~
porated town went to the Ninette Sanatorium in March, 1935, His wife made
several moves up to 1942, but has been in Winnipeg since, and apart from hos~
pital care, has been able to pay her own way. In the first instance, the City
has been responsible right along, despite an absence of twenty-one years, and,
in the second case, the Town has been obliged to accept hospital costs for over
eighteen years despite the fact that the woman has lived in Winnipeg for the
past ten years, It will be obvious that in neither case was this a fair pro-
position and this is taken care of in the new rules, which outline that, when
a woman has been separated from her husband for over three years due to his
having been an inmate of a mental institution, gaol or sanatorium, her resi-
dence is established as if she were unmarried and minor children living with
her take her residence,
The Government of Manitoba is furthermore accepting responsibility,
under the new rules, for abandoned children, where the residence of the mother
cannot be established, In many instances, the abandoned child has been born
of an unmarried mother and under the old rules the child became a responsibility
of the municipality in which it was found, This responsibility, in the case of
an infant, could continue for some eighteen years and, taking into consideration
all costs for its care, hospital charges, clothing and school costs, and the
like, it is estimated that this would often run as high as $12,000.00 to
= 2 -
$15,000,00, We understand further that consideration is being given to in-
crease the age limit to the child's twenty-first birthday, in which event, the
cost would be proportionately more, Not every municipality may have been bur-
dened by an abandoned child, but it is obvious that any might become so finan
cially involved at any time, The acceptance of responsibility by the Govern-
ment is, therefore, a real protection,
Another rule which had been amended and which might effect the estab-
lishment of legal residence is that of "temporary absence" as indicated in Rule
6 (a). ‘The old rule was not specific, and in many instances was abused to the
point that periods of many months were claimed to have been so-called visits
and the like, which made it impossible to break up the residence in the Muni-
cipality from which they had departed, The new clause now definitely states
that if a person is away for sixty-one days or longer, it is not held to be a
temporary absence and, therefore, could be considered an actual move as part
of the three-year period under review, which might well prove of benefit to
municipalities.
Lastly, we vould draw to your attention that while the new rules were
to come into effect on June 1st, 1953, there is also the provision that all
cases on which residence was pending would be settled under the new regulations,
At the end of May, we had some eighteen cases in which there appeared to be
municipal liability for persons who had lived in defence camps located within
the boundaries of municipalities: for example, North Cypress, South Cypress,
Cornwallis and Daly, and the costs for relief only of such cases amounted to
over $3,500.00. The Government has knowingly allowed these cases to remain in
dispute until the new rules became effective, and thereby have accepted respor.-
sibility for the accounts where the persons concerned had one year's residence
in the camp, or otherwise were held to be a municipal liability under the sixty
day clause, which has now been abolished. Me have a further thirty or more
cases still pending ruling and as a number of these are based on the sixty day
clause they also will be paid for by the Government.
I would not personally want to go on record as suggesting that the
new rules are perfect, but at this early date there is no evidence that they
are going to prove prejudicial to some corporations, and a decision in this re-
gard must await the test of time, In an over-all amending of rules of this
kind, it is almost impossible to expect that they will be perfect, as the chang-
ing of any rule to fit a known set of circumstances may prove to be of little,
if any, value when applied to a different case, However, in looking at the
rules generally, it would appear that an earnest effort has been made to clarify
the rules and a vote of thanks might well be directed to the Honorable Minister
of Public Affairs, his capable staff; to members of the Provincial Municipal
Committee dealing with this matter; and to members of the Cabinet, It is my
further belief that consideration will be given to any necessary amendments if
evidence of inequality or need for further clarification is presented to the
Minister.
= 29
FUNCTIONS OF WELFARE AGENCIES
Department of Public Welfare
Family Bureau
Family Court
Children's Aid Societies
by
NR, K.0, MACKENZIE
May I begin by expressing appreciation to the Program Committee of
this Extension Course, for providing this opportunity to meet with you muni-
cipal people.
In my opinion there is a lot of information and there are a good many
questions about existing welfare services that should be shared between the
welfare agencies on the one hand and local government on the other. To the ex-
tent that welfare agencies, on the one hand, can understand the responsibility,
scope and limitations of municipalities and to the extent that municipalities,
on the other hand, can understand what welfare agencies are trying to achieve,
a good deal of friction and wasteful activity can be overcome, I hope that the
material I will present this morning will assist in widening and deepening that
understanding.
It might appear so at times, and I think it could be proved without
difficulty, that on certain cases a lack of understanding or a misunderstanding
exists on the part of either or both parties. This can result in a rather
childish performance, with the welfare agency labelling the municipal officials
as callous, hard~nearted, stingy or worse ana the municipal officials labelling
the welfare agency as soft-hearted, soft-headed, extravagant, wasteful and
capricious. When the situation deteriorates to this point it is extremely diffi-
cult to examine sanely and quietly what is really required in the case and what
would be the best solution to the problem,
Therefore, in this paper this morning I am going to try to do smething
to contribute to a further and wider understanding between welfare agencies and
municipalities as to their aims, objectives and practices, I am quite aware
that this is not a one-way street and I will certainly appreciate the opportunity
during the discussion period following this paper, of getting your point of view
as to what can be done towards further improvement.
In the first place, I think this point should be made, Local govern-
ment, as we have it in this country and province, and welfare agencies, both
public and private, are part of our democratic way of life and find their origins
in the work and aspirations of our forebears to evolve a democratic society, In
discussing this point, it should be borne in mind that local government is older
than the welfare agencies, It should also be pointed out that local governnent
has, in its history, consistently sought out, encouraged and assisted in the
creation and development of welfare agencies, I would like to give two or three
= 30-
illustrations of this.
In the field of children's services, and particularly in the history
of the creation of children's aid societies in Manitoba, there are many in-
stances of municipalities supporting the organization of these societies, In
actual fact most of the municipalities in Manitoba voluntarily support these
quasi-public welfare agencies, In a number of instances municipal officials
are active participating members of the boards of directors of these societies,
‘Two other illustrations will suffice to make the point.
On a number of occasions in the past the Union of Manitoba Municipal-
ities passed resolutions requesting the Provincial Government and the Federal
Government, to assume much heavier and wider resyonsibility for providing assis~
tance toelderly people than was the case at the time the resolution was passed,
While I think it would be admitted that a considerable part of the motive be-
hind such resolutions was to relieve municipalities of certain social service
costs, I think it would also be readily admitted that a heavy part of the mo-
tivation sprang from a realization that the needs of old people should be more
adequately met. The important point, however, is that the effect of these
resolutions was principally to create, or strengthen, or make wider, the scope
and function cf such weilare agencies as our Old Age Assistance and Blind Per
sons! Pensions Board,
A third illustration is found in the continuous request from many
municipalities over the years for the Previncial Government to widen and in-
crease the scope of its liothers' Allowances program. Again, the motives back
of these requests were, I believe, similar to those which I have mentioned re~
garding elderly people, Nevertheless, the Provincial Government has increased
and widened the scope of its Mothers' Allowances program and, to this extent,
the municipalities have encouraged, assisted and contributed towards the cre-
ation and development of a public welfare agency.
I would like to review briefly what I have just said, 1 have pointed
out thatwelfare agencies, voluntary and public, are, along with local govern-
ment organization, a feature of our democratic society. By and large, espec-
ially in Manitoba, the organization of local government preceded the organ-
ization of welfare agencies. Perhaps we have looked at enough illustrations to
show that local government has played no small part in creating and developing
welfare agencies in this province,
Can we discover whether the aims and objectives of local government
and welfare agencies are antagonistic or identical? If we can think this prob-
lem through and understand it perhaps we'll find a solid basis for agreement
and joint action, Let's look at local government. Is not the task of our
local governnent to encourage, foster and provide for a healthy community - a
healthy community physically, socially and economically? In our democratic
society everyone has an opportunity to share in the selection of that govern—
ment by helping, through the ballot and various conventions, to choose the
government. At the same time everyone has the responsibility according to his
or her understanding to try to work for the community by being a part of the
community's government, By and large our communities, organized in this way,
provide for the health and well-being of their citizens in a way which citizens
cannot do individually. ‘Thus our local government is interested, not in schools
as such, but in the education of our children; not in roads as such, but in good
transportation facilities; not in hospitals or health units as such, but in the
protection of ourselves from sickness and disease; not in economy or low
aie
taxes as such, but in economically operated services whose return to the com~
munity overshadows the economic cost, When the costs of the services get so
high that the well-being of the individuals in the community is affected, then
the danger line is definitely crossed, Sound local government and real demo-
cratic lccal government, in fact all sound democratic government, is only so
when it is interested in the well-being of the community and that means of all
the citizens of the community. Now, let's look at welfare agencies, I believe
we would agree that the function and objective of welfare agencies is to help
people, As I see it, there is no basic conflict here whatsoever with the ains
and objects of local government. in fact, the aims and objects of both parties
are, in my opinion, identical.
It is when we get into the area of how we administer municipal ser~
vices and how we administer welfare agencies that our questions really arise
and where we need to have a lot more understanding and serious thought. I am
sure you would all agree that the way welfare agencies help people should be
one where the people helped, help themselves. In other words, a really sound
welfare agency has rehabilitation of the individual as its goal. However, as
municipal officials you will certainly recognize, along with welfare agencies,
that a considerable part of the job of helping people is simply stretcher-
bearing. Uften, our first step in municipal relief or provincial welfare ser-
vices is to meet human need where there is no other means of support. Here we
carry forward such measures as assistance in cash and kind or institutional
care for the indigent, It seems to me not too hard to realize that to help
people in difficulties it is often necessary to first provide for their inmed-
iate physical needs for food, clothing and shelter, However, when we really
help people to help themselves we must, in addition, work with them as indivi-
dual people so that they will be brought along in developing and realizing their
potentials for maintenance or, when self-support cannot be realized. for main-
tenance of their self-respect. This latter kind of help is professional help
to the extent that the people who are carrying it forward have consciously
tried to learn, and continue to try to learn and share experiences, about how
human beings grow and develop and about why individuals act as they do. I think
I would point out that it is really only in the past ten years, particularly,
that welfare agencies have set their sights on trying to recruit and develop
professional staff members,
Perhaps we could try to place welfare services ani democratic local
government in national and world-wide perspective. As citizens of a democratic
country we have, as our forefathers had, a vision of the dignity and the worth
of the common man, Gur common man is fighting in Korea and elsewhere today to
preserve that vision and to attain the goals it portrays. Without any real
undue hardship we invest billions of dollars to do this, to preserve, as we
call it, the democratic way of life, It seems to me we are inconsistent and
faint-hearted when we meet this common man in his "commoner" moments and are
afraid lest we throw money away on him or deprave him by ministering to his
needs.
Again, I think a little repetition is in order, Perhaps we can agree
that the aims and objects of local government and welfare agencies are identical
and that the function of welfare agencies is to help people, but to help people
in such a way that they help themselves, recognizing that in this process a good
many people have to be literally helped before they can cone to the point of
helping themselves, and making the further point that helping people in trouble
requires professional skill and ability.
-32-
What I have said up to this point is simply a basis for speaking quite
factually about some of the specific or particular functions of a number of
welfare agencies who operate in our province alongside of, or supplenentary to,
the welfare, health and other programs of local government, The following out-
line of functions of each of these agencies is given to try to assist municipal
officials in referring cases which come to their attention to the source where
help can be obtained,
The welfare agencies whose services are most available and sought out
by the residents of your municipalities are as follows.
1, The Public Welfare Division, Provincial Department of Health and Public
Welfare.
This is the provincial welfare agency. Services are extended through
a staff of social workers in offices located at Flin Flon, Swan River, Dauphin,
Brandon, Portage la Prairie and Winnigeg.
The services in these offices include Mothers' Allowances, child wel-
fare services, relief or Social Assistance in unorganized territory and pro-
bation services for the juvenile courts, In addition, the Public Welfare Division
administers the Social Assistance Act, Further, through the Old Age and Blind
Persons! Pensions Board, assistance programs are carried to the aged group 65
to 69 and to the blind, Furthermore, under the terms of the Child Welfare Act
the Public Welfare Division is responsible for supervision, instruction, advice
and assistance to the children's aid societies and children's institutions.
2, The Children's Aid Societies.
There are four non-denominational societies, each with a definite
geographical jurisdiction, Each has a large area to serve and offices are lo-
cated respectively in Brandon, Fortage la Prairie, St, Boniface and Winnipeg
for the Western, Central, Eastern and Winnipeg Societies.
The Societies operate under the Child Welfare Act and, by and large,
their functions are as follows:
to receive and look into complaints, allegations and requests for help and
advice from any member of the community who believes a child is being neglected
or in danger of neglect;
to work with the child's own parents or those who are in the position of parent
towards the child and with the resources of the community - educational, health,
etc. - to try to overcome the causes of the neglect situation to try to keep the
child in its own homes
to take to the juvenile or family court those cases where neglect can be proved
and where it appears unwise or impossitle for the child to remain in its own
homes
to take guardianship of such neglected children as are committed by the juvenile
courts to the care of a society and to try to find substitute hones of a per-
manent nature for such children;
to give advice, counsel and assistance to unmarried mothers and to assist them
in securing maintenance for themselves and their children and to assist them in
sound social planning for their children and for themselves;
to receive enquiries and applications from citizens in the community who wish to
provide foster homes or adoption homes for children,
Bares
3. The Crippled Children's Society.
This society's offices and staff are located in Winnipeg. However,
its services are extended throughout the province.
Primarily, its function is to see that all remedial and restorative
medical care is provided for crippled children, that they are educated, trained
or re-trained in terms of their residual capacities and that they are re-
habilitated towards productive living.
4. Veterans! Welfare Services, Department of Veterans! Affairs.
This is the Federal Government's provision for health, care, allow-
ances and assistance for veterans with social problems.
5. Juvenile Courts.
‘There are four main juvenile courts in the province, although each
and every police magistrate is empowered to hear and act on juvenile cases.
The four courts are located in Dauphin, Brandon, St. Boniface and Winnipeg.
In Winnipeg the court is known as the Juvenile and Family Court, the Judge
being £, J. Heaney and the associate Judge Milford Watson.
Juvenile courts hear all cases involving juveniles under 16 years of
age for all minor offences, although for serious offences they have the right
to refer such cases to the regular courts, The Family Court section in Greater
Winnipeg hears all cases involving disputes and difficulties within families
and of a civil nature,
‘The foregoing has been a brief summary of the main welfare agencies
and their functions. To try to assist you in understanding the organization
and scope of these activities I have brought along for distribution among you
sufficient copies of a combination chart and map to try to show what the ser
vices are and where they are loceted.
I think in summary we would see that during the past two decades,
and particularly during the past decade, there has been a substantial growth
and development of welfare services in Manitoba with an ever-increasing em-
phasis on decentralizing these services out into the areas where the people
are actually living. As I said earlier, the growth and development of these
welfare agencies has been requested, encouraged and assisted in no small part
by local government and I think the point can be made that there is a crowing
and developing understanding and inter-relationship between the welfare agencies
and the municipalities in the use and integration of these welfare services.
In concluding, may I once again express my appreciation for this
opportunity of meeting with you and may I again invite you to ask questions
and discuss any matters in this field as freely and forthrightly as the time
will allow, and, before closing, may 1 express the best wishes for the success
of this extension course and the hope, which I know will be fulfilled, that it
will substantially assist in the development of better understanding of the
problems of local government and better adninistration in meeting those prob-
lems,
=e
X Flin Flon 0.0,
KEY:
YK Public Welfare Offices
Children's Aid Society
Area served by both
Public Welfare Office &
Children's Aid Society
Dauphin D.0.
Public Welfare Division
X 232 wemorial Blvd.
Brandon Eastern D.0.
D.o. LX x X|c.a.s, Eastern
C.A.S, Western Portage le Rice
Prairie D.0. het oo es:
C,A.S, Central
Inquiries regarding Financial Assistance (Relief, Old Age Pensions, Mothers!
Allowance, Transients) should be addressed to the local office of the Public
Welfare Division, or to Mr. K.0. Mackenzie, Deputy Minister of Hublic Welfare,
232 Memorial Blvd., Winnipeg.
Inquiries re Child Welfare cases should be addressed to the nearest Children's
Aid Society:
Southwestern Manitoba - Children's Aid Society of Western Manitoba located
at Brandon,
South Central Manitoba - Children's Aid Society of Central Manitoba located
at Portage la Prairie.
Southeastern Manitoba - Children's Aid Society of Eastern Manitoba, located
at 669 Tache Ave., St. Boniface.
Greater Winnipeg - Children's Aid Society of Winnipeg, located at
18h Alexander Ave., Winnipeg.
Inquiries re Child Welfare cases in areas not served by a Children's Aid Society
‘Should be directed to the nearest Public Welfare office,
In cases where territorial jurisdiction is in question, enquiries or referrals
may be directed to the Deputy Minister of Public Welfare, 232 Memorial Blvd,
Winnipeg.
jinnipeg, (Printed June, 1953, by Division of Public
Welfare, 232 Memorial Blvd., Winnipeg)
e354
THE PREPARATION OF JURY LISTS
by
MR, W.J. JOHNSTON, Q.C.
Once in each year, you are required, by law, to prepare a list of
those voters in your municipality who may be called upon to serve as jurymen
during the following year.
Section 7 of The Jury Act requires the head of each municipality to-
gether with his clerk and the assessors to meet during the first ten days of
November for the purpose of selecting the persons for the list.
This duty is of prime importance and in discharging it faithfully
and well you are making a substantial contribution to the due and proper ad~
ministration of justice in your community,
‘An examination of the jury lists sent in, in the past, together
with actually seeing the jurymen themselves, discloses that in far too many
cases the first selectors have failed miserably in their task.
Persons have been returned as jurymen, who were considerably over
60 years of ace, who were deaf or nearly so, who could not understand English,
who were under law exampted from jury service, who were so suffering from men-
tal and physical infirmity as to be unfit for jury service, and, on at least
one occasion, who had died some time prior to the return of the list.
Had you not neglected your duties, as first selectors, such errors
could and would not have occurred, I am satisfied that your neglect was not
wilful but rather that it arose out of a failure to fully appreciate the im-
portance of the task to be performed,
The right of every person, charged in this country with a serious
crime, to a trial by jury is our heritage, handed down through the ages, and
one of which we may be justly proud,
It is a right that has been won by the blood of our forefathers and
forever guaranteed as one of our basic personal liberties in the words of the
Magna Carta signed by King John of England in the 13th century,
The jury system has continued over the years and has spread to other
countries because it has been found to be the greatest safeguard to the lib-
erty of the subject,
Individual judges and those who constantly deal with criminal matters
may become prejudiced one way or another and too greatly influenced by per-
sonal considerations, A jury, on the other hand, brings to the consideration
of the problem a cross-section of the thought and experience in the community
338.5
and in a democratic country is as a body best suited to render justice to all,
Ata jury trial, it is the jury who have the full power to convict
or acquit; though on matters of law they are guided by the trial judge's in-
structions, they are the sole judges of the facts and the fate of accused per-
sons rests solely in their hands, even as does the welfare of society which
they represent.
You will therefore realize the importance of the jury to our way of
life and I hope more fully appreciate the importance of your duties as the first
selectors of the jury members, The list which you prepare is the foundation
on which the edifice of justice is to be built -- I charge you to lay that
foundation well.
Many persons in your municipality, probably those who are best fitted
to serve as jurymen, will seek to avoid being included in the list and you will
have to guard against favoritism in your selections, while it is a cardinal
duty of citizenship to serve as a juror, it is also a great privilege and you
should ensure that all qualified persons are given an opportunity to serve,
irrespective of his or her personal desires,
You are, of course, aware that by virtue of the 1952 changes in The
Jury Act, women as well as men are now eligible to serve as jurors and that the
names are now to be selected from your last revised and certified List of
Electors rather than from the Assessment Roll as theretofore.
How then should you go about preparing your annual jury list? The
mechanics of your procedure is not of great importance provided that you comply
with the statute, but I would especially commend to your consideration the
following rules. If you observe them faithfully you will find that the proper
performance of your task is not really very difficult and at the same time you
will return a well prepared jury list.
1. Select a suitable day during the first ten days of November for the
meeting of the selectors, Remember all of you must be present at
the meeting and a name should not be entered on the jury list until
you have approved it as a group.
AL1 selectors should read and be familiar with Sections 3 to 16 of
The Jury Act and in particular Sections 4 and 5 which contain the
disqualifications and exemptions,
3. The clerk should provide copies of the last revised certified list
of electors and also a sufficient supply of suitable paper on which
the names of those selected are to be entered,
In the past many, of you have been sending in your jury lists on any
bit of paper which happens to be handy, Because of lack of uniformity
this requires complete re-typing of the lists for the use of the final
selectors and a good deal of wasted time, It is imperative that all
jury lists be submitted on a standard form, Wilson's Stationery have
available a most suitable form for this purpose and it is known as -
Jury Lists ~ No. 42.
I urge all of you to procure an adequate supply immediately and to use
it exclusively in making return of your annual jury list,
3375
A,
On meeting as arranged all selectors, before commencing to select the
jurors, must make and subscribe the oath prescribed by section 10 of The
Jury Act,
later as you proceed with the selection do not lose thought of what
you are sworn to do -
"Select from the proper list the requisite number of
the most fit and proper persons to serve as jurors."
Ascertain the total number of names on the list of electors - divide
it by twenty and the round figure closest to the result will give
you the number of persons you are required to select.
Proceed with the selection of the jurors.
It is here that your real work begins. At this stage it is not enough
to merely transfer a sufficient number of names from the list of
electors to the jury list and then consider that your duties have been
performed, As a group you must consider the qualifications of each
person whose name is to be entered on the jury list, and only after a
majority of you agree that the person in question passes all of the
following tests should his or her name be entered on the list.
You have been chosen to make these tests because of your knowledge
of the people in your community, You know them and as responsible
individuals holding responsible positions in society, society relies
on you to exercise your discretion to the end that only qualified
persons will ever find themselves to be members of a jury.
TESTS OF A JURY MEMBER
‘That the person being considered is:-
(i), between the age of 21 and 60 (Sec. 3);
(ii) resident in the municipality (Sec. 11);
(iii) not exempted under Section 5 (Sec. 5);
(iv) not afflicted by blindness or deafness (Sec. i);
(v) not so afflicted with physical or mental infirmity
as to be unfit for jury service (Sec. h)3
(vi) not charged with an indictable offence nor ever
been convicted of such an offence (Sec. li)
(vii) one who has not served as a juror for two years
Gec. 32);
(viii) able to speak and understand English with
reasonable facility (Sec. 1);
(ix) of such integrity of character and soundness of
judgment as to be fit for jury service (Sec. 12);
You may find it somewhat difficult to judge of a person's qualifications
under (ix) above but in considering that test I would suggest that you
ask yourselves this question --
Is he or she a person whose judgment I would be prepared
to abide if I, myself, or saneone near and dear to me were
charged with a serious crime?
et3ese
If the majority of you are of the opinion that the person passes all
of the above tests, then and then only his or her name should be en~
tered on the jury list.
7. When the required number of names have been thus entered on the jury
list it should be signed by all of the selectors,
8, Within three days after completion the clerk must send one copy of
the list to the Prothonotary or the deputy clerk of the Crown. and
pleas, one copy to the County Court judge of the District or in the
Eastern Judicial District to the Senior County Court judge.
It is most desirable that as many qualified persons as possible have
an opportunity to take part in the administration of justice. As well as being
a duty and a privilege, jury service is a great educator and any person who has
served on a jury must take away with him a better appreciation of what is meant
by justice before the law. Accordingly you should keep records of those per-
sons who have served and they should not be relisted for service until all the
other qualified persons in your community have had that opportunity.
If you follow these simple rules faithfully and conscientiously you
will return good jury lists and not only thereby discharge your statutory
duties but you will, at the same time, be fulfilling a most important function
in the due and proper administration of justice in the province,
<39=
ELECTORS' ROLLS AND LISTS OF ELECTORS AND RATEPAYERS
by
MR, A.W, VINCENT
Because, some few years ago, I happened to speak a little too often
upon a certain subject during an executive meeting of the Manitoba liunicipal
Secretary-Treasurers' Association, 1 have been charged to enlarge upon the
same in a paper here today.
This subject is Electors’ Rolls and Lists of Electors and Ratepayers,
and though the going may be difficult, I trust you will bear with me and per-
haps gain something useful, even though it be merely a realization of the com
plexity of the subject in all its ramifications.
The right to vote in any true democracy, without fear, without co-
ercion and, sometimes I'm afraid, without mich sense, is, in my opinion, the
basic right and the firm foundation of democratic government as we enjoy it.
No matter how seemingly autocratic or overbearing governments may be,
in democracies, sooner or later, the man in the street has his innings, and the
vigorous manner in which his vote is wooed by the politicians is an indication
of its importance - to the voter exercising it and to the candidate seeking to
be favored therewith,
This right to vote in the election of governments has not always been
the privilege of all citizens, but has evolved through the ages, through trouble,
strife and sacrifice and through the struggles of men and women to live a full
and happy existence under governments they themselves have a voice in creating.
It is most unfortunate that in these days the right of franchise seens
to be taken most lightly upon occasion, One has only to observe the percen-
tage of votes cast in comparison to the possible mumber, to see that too many
electors are too busy with their daily occupations to bother about voting and
thereby helping to preserve their right to vote,
Peculiarly, it is in those countries where, to our way of thinking,
the most obnoxious forms of government exist, that the most complete exercise
of franchise is recorded. You have often read instances where in totalitarian
countries, 99 or 1004 of the people have voted, but the voting was not free,
was not without fear but, rather, because of it and God help the 1# if they are
discovered,
However, whether we choose to use it or not, the right to vote is a
most important right and privilege and, to see that it is properly safeguarded,
certain rules and regulations have been made and must be observed,
These rules and regulations differ at the various levels of governnent,
- lo-
in Canada, but in the main, they vary but little, with perhaps the more re-
strictive kind being found at the municipal level.
In an effort to make this subject a little more interesting, I did
some research work into the methods and machinery of voting in the sister pro-
vinces to the east and to the west of this one, and I find that while each of
them has its own distinctive requirements, the basic principles are present in
them all.
For instance, in Ontario, no electors’ roll is made, but the Clerk or
secretary-treasurer is required to make up the voters' list directly from the
revised assessment roll. This list is in two parts and one contains the names
of those who are qualified to vote in both Provincial and municipal elections,
and the other part the names of those qualified for municipal elections only.
The basic requirements are that persons shall be British subjects, of
the full age of 21 years, and rated as ovmers or tenants on the last revised
assessment rolls at minimum amounts which vary in rural parts, villages, towns
and cities, Relatives of owners are eligible, as are husbands and wives of
tenants if they are resident in the municipality, A twelve month residence re-
quirement is also necessary in respect of these residents.
From the Province of Saskatchewan, I obtained a copy of The Town Act,
from which I gathered pertinent information, but this would not be exhaustive,
for I assume that Province will also have a Rural Municipalities Act, as well
as others for cities and villages, etc.
However, the basic requirements are that male and female persons,
British subjects, of the full age of 18 years, are qualified to be placed on
the Voters! list, There are no property qualifications; itis sufficient if a
person is named on the assessment roll.
In Saskatchewan, no Electors’ Roll is made and the Assessor makes up
the list from three sources:
(1) Cards issued under the Saskatchewan Hospitalization Acts
(2) Completed voters' registration forms; and
(3) The assessment roll.
The names taken from the hospital cards, and from the registration forms, shall
be those of persons who have resided in the municipality for at least five
months before June 1,
In general, it seems to me that the qualifications for Manitoba fall
somewhere between those of Ontario, the most restrictive, and those of Sask-
atchewan, the least, but in neither of our neighbouring provinces are Electors!
Rolls made prior to the making of lists of electors, or voters' lists as they
are called in the statutes to the east and west of us.
In the early days of the Province of Manitoba, in the municipal field
the right of franchise was limited to those who held certain property quali
fications, and although changes were made from time to time allowing certain
relatives of such property owners to be enfranchised, these qualifications ob-
tained until the year 1946, when a fundamental change in legislation extended
the right to vote to all residents of a municipality under certain conditions
and abolished property qualifications in respect of such residents. Thus, today,
we have virtually universal franchise in the municipal council elections in
Manitoba,
Sip
As stated previously, there are rules and regulations governing the
right to vote, and I now propose to discuss those to be followed by the muni-
cipal authorities of this Province,
The most important, over-riding, single requirement antecedent to
voting is that the person attempting to do so must be named on the list of
electors, and how he becomes so named is set forth in the Municipal Act and the
first step taken is the preparation of the Electors! Roll.
Annually, not later than February 15th, any municipality may appoint
an enumerator, and where the assessments are now being made by the Provincial
Municipal Assessor shall make such an appointment,
This is an apparent recognition that the assessor is not, ex-officio,
necessarily the most competent person to make the Electors’ Roll and when the
whole Province, outside of the cities and certain suburbans, eventually is
assessed by the Provincial Municipal Assessor, then enumerators will have to be
appointed by all municipalities so assessed.
However, at the present time, whoever does the job is required to
have his roll of resident electors completed by June 15th, and on a form pre-
scribed by the Minister, giving the property on which such resident elector
qualifies.
A non-resident Electors! Roll must be similarly made at least every
fourth year,
Once a resident Electors’ Roll has been completed, as already men-
tioned, it may be adopted by resolution of Council for the three following years
subject to revision,
We now know that the enumerator or assessor is responsible for con
pleting the Electors' Rolls, and doubtless the prime requisite must be to
determine just who are the electors, and how they qualify as such, To do this,
the enumerator or assessor must start at Section 93 of The Municipal Act, which
tells him the following things:
Persons entitled to be placed upon the list of
electors are male or female, of the full age
of 21 years, and British subjects who aret
(a) owners, resident or non-resident;
(b) actual residents of the municipality, ward
or polling subdivision at the time of the
election and for six months immediately
prior thereto,
In connection with owners, he must not, overlook Section L9 which de~
fines them,
“An owner means a person who has in his own
right a life or greater than a life estate,
legal or equitable, in land within the muni-
cipality, the assessed value of which is not
less than one hundred dollars."
I have deliberately quoted from the Act, because, frankly, about the
phe
only part I clearly understand is the one hundred dollars, and even that more
by hearsay than close personal association, This is serious, with the cost of
living increasing periodically by two bits or 50¢ per bottle,
At first glance, it might appear that paragraph 98 (1) (a) dealing
with resident owners, is redundant in the light of paragraph (b) immediately
following, but this is not the case as I interpret the qualifications which
entitle a person to be placed on the list of electors.
If he is not an owner, but an actual resident; perhaps a relative,
boarder or employee, he must have lived in the municipality for a six months!
period. However, if he is an onmer, this six months' residence qualification
does not apply. Should he become an owner at any time prior to the election
date, he is entitled to be named on the list and entitled to vote even though
not so named,
No person who is assessed as a trustee for land is entitled to be
placed on the list of electors. This bar would apply to the executrix of her
deceased husband's will, where the land was in his name but would only operate
if the widow was non-resident,
Where a person is qualified to vote in two or more wards, he is en-
titled to be placed on the list in each ward in which he so qualifies; as a
resident in the ward in which he actually lives and as a non-resident in the
others, If wards are broken down into polling subdivisions, he must be shown
in each such subdivision where he qualifies.
Section 102 provides that joint owners are entitled to be placed on
the list of Electors if each of them qualifies in respect of assessed value, but
if this is not the case, none of them are so entitled.
‘These are the requirements for being named on the list and no person
can vote unless he is so named, except, (a) he votes under a Clerk's certi-
ficate of omission as in Section 103, or (b) he is vouched for under Section 107.
‘The Clerk's certificate covers the situation where an elector is named
on either the assessment roll or the electors’ roll and has been missed out of
the list, and the method of vouching is used where the person, although properly
qualified, is not named anywhere. In both cases, the net effect is that the
person's name is added to the list and he then becomes entitled to vote.
The foregoing covers the qualifications of electors, and we now move
on to the preparation of the Electors! Roll.
In preparing the Electors' Rolls, both resident and non-resident, the
assessor or enumerator must keep in close touch with the Assessment Roll because
the amount at which property is assessed as already shown has a bearing, and
because the way in which a person is shown on the Assessment Roll might prevent
his being qualified as an elector. Also, where an elector owns several parcels
of land, he is entitled to be shown as resident on the land upon which he ac—
tually lives, and as non-resident on the others. This is especially important
where land is situated in more than one ward.
In Section 50, sub-section (6), we have a little joker, In muni-
cipalities where the Electors! Rolls must be made by an enumerator, there is no
direction to him if he suspects that a person is not entitled to be placed on
2 ie
the Rolls, This sub-section tells what the assessor is to do, but if he is
not charged with completing the Rolls, I cannot see how he will suspect. any-
thing. Perhaps this is an oversight in amending the Section, or maybe it was
considered that enumerators would not be of as suspicious turn of mind as
assessors.
After the Electors! Roll has been completed, the enumerator or assessor
is required to post the same in the municipal office for inspection for a period
not less than thirty days prior to the first day of August, and then the Council
of all municipalities except cities and six others in the vicinity of Winnipeg,
shall sit as a Court of Revision for hearing complaints against the Roll so
posted.
There is no appeal from the decision of the Court, but the list of
electors subsequently prepared from the Electors’ Poll is subject to revision
by a County Court Judge,
In regard to the cities and the six other municipalities just re-
ferred to, it is to be noted that the Councils of these corporations are re-
lieved of the necessity of sitting in revision of the Electors’ Rolls and
complainants must apply direct to the County Court judge of the district con-
cerned.
However, these same corporations must print a new list each and every
years they do not have the option of amending the list by additions and de-
letions in those years in which the Electors’ Roll is adoptea, as do the rest
of the municipalities,
Iwas not able to determine from the Municipal Act why the method
used by the cities and those municipalities named in Section 51 subsection (5)
is confined to these corporations, or what procedure is necessary for other
centres of large population to follow in order to adopt this method, I had
in mind such municipalities as Flin Flon, Dauphin and Selkirk,
We now arrive at the point where the Clerk, theoretically, enters the
picture. 1 say theoretically because I know that in many cases there would be
very sketchy Electors’ Rolls indeed unless the Secretary took a hand in pre-
paring them,
Nevertheless, let us assume the roll has been prepared, posted for
thirty days in the municipal office and revised by the Council sitting as a
court of revision, the Clerk is then charged with making a correst alphabetical
list of the persons appearing by the Electors' Roll to be entitled to vote in
the municipal elections,
Should the Electors! Poll be an adopted one, then, instead of re~
printing the list, it is permissible to amend the previous year's list by add~
ing names or striking out in enough copies to fill the requirements of Sections
60 to 62 of The Municipal Act which will be discussed later. Such amendment
of the list is permitted only upon resolution of Council and with the approval
of the County Court judge.
I note in passing that both subsections (2) and (3) of Section 52
require amending to make them consistent with other pertinent Section of the
Act. The cities and the six other municipalities are pemitted to appoint an
= hh
enumerator, but subsection (2) clearly indicates that the assessor is required
to make the Blectors' Rolls, Subsection (3), in order to have the desired
effect, should be amended so that it refers to the correct subsection of Section
50.
50,
The list as prepared by the Clerk must be in a definite form as shown
in Section 53, and careful perusal of the same indicates that it is not neces—
sary for the enumerator or assessor to make his roll in alphabetical order,
because two numbers are required (a) the number of the elector upon the list
and (b) his number on the Electors! Roll. It might be of some advantage to the
enumerator or assessor to make a geographic canvass of the municipality if he
feels that by so doing there is less likelihood of properly qualified electors
being omitted and it is up to the Clerk to unscramble the names and arrange
them in alphabetical order,
As a matter of fact, in Ontario, the list must be made up in the same
order as the assessment roll is prepared, unless Council directs by resolution
that it be made alphabetically.
Each person on the Manitoba list must be identified in respect of a
parcel of real property either as an owner; resident or non-resident; or as an
elector actually living on the property.
Where the municipality is divided into wards and polling subdivisions,
the list must be so divided, showing who is entitled to vote in each polling
place,
Section 56 requires that the list be printed unless Council directs
otherwise by resolution, and Section 57 requires the Clerk to date and certify
the same as being correct.
Following the Municipal Act along, it is found that a blank page
must be left at the end of the list for the purpose of appending any statement
or certificate required.
The names and addresses of the reeve or mayor, secretary-treasurer
and the County Court judge of the district to which the municipality belongs,
are required to be placed on the list,
It appears that no advertising is allowed, and perhaps the muni-
cipalities have overlooked a possible source of revenue here, Think how
attractive to some electors the rubber company's slogan "Time to re-tire"
would be right next to the name of a perennial corporation head, or how en-
couraging to the secretary-treasurer to know that there is indeed a "Home of
Friendly Credit,"
However intriguing such a decorative document might be, it will be
the familiar unadorned list that the Clerk will post up in his office as soon
as he has it completed, He must also post up copies in such post offices and
schools as the Council by resolution may designate and send four copies to the
County Court judge and two copies to each member of the Council and each can-
didate defeated at the last election,
Continuing, one finds in the Municipal Act the machinery for revising
the list by application to the County Court judge, but I consider that phase
ae =
to be a subject in itself and beyond the scope of this paper and I now move on
to the trying matter of ratepayer's lists.
‘The Clerk alone is charged with the responsibility of the preparation
of a list of ratepayers to be used in the submission of municipal by-laws, He
gets no help from the assessor or the enumerator,
The correctness of ratepayers! lists is most important, because, al-
‘though a person missed out may apply for a Clerk's certificate of omission,
there is no method of vouching for a ratepayer as there is in council elections.
Accordingly, the first thing a secretary should do is become com-
pletely familiar with the qualifications of a ratepayer. In addition to those
which entitle him to vote at elections for Council members, he must, at the
time of voting on the by-law, be the owmer of real property in the municipality
or part of it concerned to at least the value of four hundred dollars or the
owner of not less than eighty acres of land, and in both cases be shown in that
manner on the last revised assessment roll.
Using either a money or an alternative acreage qualification might
in some isolated cases cause unusual situations. To illustrate, a person
owning seventy-nine acres, assessed at three hundred and ninety dollars or
less, would not be entitled to be placed on the list of ratepayers, but one
owning eighty acres or more assessed at a mere hundred dollars would be so
entitled,
You will no doubt agree that land would have to be submarginal to be
assessed at such low values, but in one municipality where 1 served as sec-
retary, there was section after section assessed at the rate of six hundred
dollars per quarter,
To further complicate the situation, an amendment was enacted in
1952 which allows an owner, aded to the tax roll under Section 1057 with an
assessment of four hundred dollars or over, to vote on by-laws, but if he is
added as owner of eighty acres assessed at less than this amount he does not
qualify.
Further points to be remembered are, that where the land constituting
the qualification of a ratepayer is assessed at eight hundred dollars or more,
both husband and wife are entitled to vote, vrovided both live within the
boundaries of the area to which the by-law vote applies. Where local improvement
districts, memorial hall or rink districts, etc. are involved, residence with-
in the municipality would not be sufficient; both must reside in the district,
otherwise only the one who actually appears as owner on the assessrent roll is
qualified as a non-resident owner.
Some of the marital tangles that one runs into occasionally can be
the cause cf considerable doubt in connection with ratepayers’ lists. For
instance, what is the correct thing to do where a wife legally separated from
her husband is living with her parents within the boundaries of a money by-law
district and her husband owns a qualifying parcel of land in his own name in
the same area but does not live in the district? He is a non-resident owner
and is qualified to vote, and she obtains her qualification through her husband
and as the wife of a non-resident she would not qualify.
Sllibe
At least, that is the way I would rule, but I do admit the point could
stand discussion,
In any event, the Clerk must use care in these border-line cases be~
cause Section 535 (1) requires him to make a list of all those persons legally
qualified to vote. Some of the fine points to be decided may put his legal
talents to the test,
There is one further type of list which the municipal secretary-
treasurer is required to make, and this is the one used in voting on school
district by-lans and referendums,
The Public Schools Act refers to the Municipal Act for directions as
to the preparation of these lists and these are substantially the same as for
a list of municipal ratepayers, but the qualifications are greatly different,
Firstly, the property qualification is dispensed with and all electors
resident in the school district are entitled to be placed on the list. Secondly,
non-resident owners, no matter how large their holdings within the district, are
barred from voting. This latter provision has been the cause of as much recrim-
ination as far as I personally have been concerned, than all other complaints
put together, Jt is one case where one pays the piper without any chance to call
the tune and, to rub it ina little more, a school district money by-law will
be approved with a bare majority whereas it requires three-fifths of the voters
to be in favor to pass a municipal money by-law.
Having now dealt with the fundamentals of my subject, it might be well
to examine briefly some of the common problems to be met.
It seems to me that one of the chief causes of dissatisfaction is the
apathy or neglect with which Electors! Rolls and lists usually meet, Generally
speaking, assessors have felt that the matter is decidely secondary to purely
assessment affairs and have not given the time necessary to the proper completion
of the rolls, nor are Councils wholly free from blame because I feel that they
have not given adequate consideration to the matter of proper remuneration for
the work involved,
In my opinion, the action of the Provincial Municipal Assessor in ob-
taining legislation freeing his department from responsibility for the pre-
paration of the Electors' Rolls, amply supports my contention that it is a field
of endeavor in itself and not a bothersome detail in connection with assessment,
work,
As the use of properly paid enumerators expands, it is to be hoped
that more satisfactory Rolls will result.
In castigating other officials, I do not propose to overlook the
Secretary-Treasurer, He, too, in the main, is apt to think that the preparation
of his list is love's labor lost, but in his case there is the urge to do as
good a job as possible because he knows he will have to face a barrage of crit~
icism in the event of an election where the lists are in bad shape. It is not
encouraging to know beforehand that the likelihood of his list ever being used
in an election is extremely remote and this is the case today with so many
acclamations in the municipal field. I know of a Town incorporated some thirty
years ago, where nobody knows of or remembers a contested election for Council
hrs
members every being held, yet a list of electors has been faithfully prepared
year after year,
Lists of electors are commonly used for many purposes other than for
voting. Hospitals like to get them, and plenty of business houses seem to find
them useful for making up mailing lists and for finding where John Doe lives
so he can be visited by the long arm of commercialism.
I recall, some years ago, when I was employed by a rural municipality
not far from here, I had a stack of my nice new electors’ lists in the car and
when I stopped to speak to the operator of the municipal grading outfit one of
the workmen took a list and disappeared into the bush,
Why he did this I could never understand, because the light for
reading by was much better up on the grade.
In dealing with this whole subject, I have come to the conclusion that
we could profitably do away with the making of Electors! Rolls and compile only
lists as is done elsewhere, Once a master list is completed it can be a re-
latively simple matter to amend it from year to year and I believe mr, Byars
will have a word for you in this regard during his address tomorrow.
Before concluding, let me say I think our voting machinery could be
improved upon, I lived near Saskatchewan in the early thirties and as I
watched dust, grasshogpers and the strong hot air of a new political party
blowing in from the west, I fell into that frame of mind that nothing good
could cone from that Province, with the exception of our visiting delegates and
Pete Byars. However, I now think that in the event of our overhauling our
voting machinery, we could with great benefit look to the West,
I now dose with a gem I picked out of a local newspaper the other
day, quote, "THERE ARE VERY FEW INTELLECTUAL DISCUSSIONS THAT CAN'T BE MADE
A LOT CLEARER BY ONE OR TWO IGNCRANT QUESTIONS." Unquote.
GRANTS FOR EDUCATION
by
DR. R. 0, MacFARLANE
I should like to thank you for the kind invitation to discuss with
you some aspects of grants for Education in Manitoba,
Under the present system of payments the siunicipal Secretary-treas-
urers are very much concerned with both the amount and the method of paying
such grants. I should like to take this opportunity of thanking the secretary-
treasurers for the fine cooperation that we have had both individually and
collectively from you,
As you are all aware, in Canada's federal system, Education comes
under provincial jurisdiction. So concerned were the Fathers of Confederation
about this matter that they did not list it along with other fields of provin-
cial jurisdiction under section 92 of the B, N. A, Act, but placed it in a
separate section of its own, While the Government of Canada has in recent
years shown some interest in such specialized branches of Education as health
education and technical education, it has on the whole, scrupulously avoided
any possible suggestion that Education was not exclusively a provincial matter.
Education has been a rapidly expanding field of service, with a cor-
responding increase in cost. There was a time when a Grade VIII education was
considered all that was necessary for most Canadians. That view has been giving
way to a desire for a secondary education for all pupils, While this latter
ideal has by no means been reached, we have our pupils in school much longer
than was the case ten years ago, and very much longer than was true 25 years
ago. In addition, the increase in our population in early age groups added
further to the number of pupils to be educated, Since 195 the number of
teachers employed in Manitoba has increased by 933, - from 4,353 in 195 to
5,286 in the current year, This expansion in our educational system has brought
inevitably higher costs,
There are two main sources of financial support for schools: local
taxation and provincial grants, You are all familiar with the former so we
will confine our attention here to the latter, Provincial support for Edu-
cation falls into two main categories:
The first: provision of general services over the Province as a whole,
such ast inspection of schools; teacher-training; school broadcasting; the
maintenance of a film library; the conduct of examinations and recording of
results; and the certification of teachers, All of these services are pro-
vided for out of the Provincial Budget at an estimated cost this year of
$1, 831,124,50,
‘The second means of provincial support is direct grants to school districts.
‘These grants are made directly to the school districts to assist them in fin-
ancing their local schools, The essence of our educational system is that
2 9 =:
control should be vested in the elected school board and therefore, all grants
must be of specific amounts so that the marginal costs always rest with the
school district. Only in this way can any control be retained locally.
let us examine briefly the principles on which the present grant
structure rests. All our grants are operational and are paid with respect to
service rendered, With one or two very minor exceptions which we shall mention
later there are no capital grants as such, The grants vary with the services
provided; that is: in relation to the number of classrooms which a school
district has to operate, Within the limits fixed by regulation enrolment is
the vital consideration in determining the grants to be paid, The grants also
involve an equalization principle up to the level of the guaranteed annual
Support which at the present time is $2200; in other words, for a fixed rate
of taxation, namely: 7 mills, each district receives the same amount of money,
namely: $2200 for each of its authorized teachers, The object here is to
provide equality of opportunity up to a level of minimun services, There is
the additional objective of establishing a figure that has a reasonable chance
of being maintained year by year to provide stability for the financing of our
schools, and to enable districts to budget on this firm basis; and the final prin-
ciple to which I would draw your attention is that the major grants are not ear-
marked but are direct payments to the board to be used as it sees fit in the
operation of its system,
‘The most important, grant paid by the Province is the legislative
portion of the combined grant, For the present fiscal year we estimate tnis
will amount to %6,675,000, The formula, as I have already suggested, is the
amount required to raise the product of 7 mills on the balanced assessment of
the municipality to $2200 for each authorized teacher and to provide a minimum
grant or floor of $700 for each authorized teacher,
In determining an authorized teacher several factors are taken into
consideration, The most important is enrolment in elementary schools. An
enrolment of 7 to 39 provides for one authorized teacher; 0 to 79 - two
authorized teachers; and thereafter the enrolment is divided by 30, with an
extra teacher allowed for a remainder of 20 or more.
In secondary schools an enrolment of 10 to 2h provides for one
teacher; where Grade XII is taught - 25 to 39 for two teachers; 0 to 6h for
three teachers; and 65 to 11h, for four teachers. Over this number, enrolment
is divided by 25 with an extra teacher allowed for each remainder of 15 or more.
In every case the number of teachers employed must be as great as the entitle-
ment; and there are some reductions in the secondary entitlement if Grade XII
is not taught in 2-room high schools or larger. The school must have operated
for 200 days in the calendar year, If it is less, the number of authorized
teachers is decreased sroportionately. The teacher must be receiving a salary
of at least £1700 or the grant is reduced by an amount equal to the difference
tetween 21700 and the annual salary actually paid. In union school districts
in a runicivality 2 crection of an autrorized teacher is allowed on the same
ratio as the balanced assessment of the district divides between two or more
municisalities. For closed schools, for which a crant of $110 per pupil is
paid, the teacher count is the froction resresented by grant earned divided
by $2200,
This sounds like a ratner complicated system of calculation, and
you nay therefore, ve interested in the actual steps that we use to calculate
@ grant, Firs: wo ascertain the peneral levy of the municipality; that is:
7 mills on the balanced assessment, - the balanced assessment being the
equalized assessment plus the personal property or business tax. Then we assign
60 per cent of this municipal general levy to the spring term and 0 per cent
to the fall term, We then determine the teacher count, that is: the authorized
number of teachers for the municipality for the term, in the manner I have men-
tioned above. We then divide the spring term general levy by the spring term
teacher count, which gives us the municipal share of the combined grant per
teacher, We then take the teacher count for each school district and multiply
it by $1320 (60% of $2200), This gives us the total spring term combined
grant for the district,
We then multiply the teacher count for the district by the municipal
share per teacher, which gives us the municipal portion of the cambined grant
for the district. This figure is provided to the secretary-treasurer of each
municipality, The difference between the total spring term combined grant for
the district and the municipal portion of the grant gives us the legislative
grant for the district for that term,
In this rather complicated method of calculation you might be con-
cerned about the possibility of error, The grant is originally calculated by
our grants clerk, then checked by another clerk; and then given an over-all
check by the departmental accountant, Both the teacher count and the grant
calculation is given a pre-audit by the Comptroller-General's Department. In
spite of all of these checks there is always some possibility of error, although
these have been held to two or three a year, If you detect an error in the
calculation for your municipality ve should be very grateful indeed if you
would inform us as soon as it comes to your attention,
While the legislative portion of the combined grant is much the
largest paid by the Provincial Government to school districts there are several
others of some importance. A grant of $750 per authorized teacher is paid for
each secondary school teacher on the basis of the enrolment formula referred
to above. This is an inducement grant and is paid to districts to encourage them
to provide secondary school facilities which are more expensive than elementary;
and enrolment is generally smaller,
Transportation grants are paid to consolidated school districts on
the basis of 50% of actual cost, or 0% of the provincial average cost per
mile, whichever is the lesser, Last year the provincial average was 75¢ per
mile one way, so that the provincial share was 30¢ per mile. This again, is an
inducement grant to provide a better standard of educational services by con-
solidating service to 3ave both teachers who are scarce; and to get rid of
uneconomic attendance units.
In addition to the legislative and secondary grants, additional grants
are paid to school districts with respect to technical teachers who are devoting
at least 50% of their time to technical instruction of students in one of the
50 per cent courses, (that is: Commercial, Agriculture, industrial, or Home
Economics), These courses have to be approved by the Inspector of Technical
Schools, There must be a minimum of 10 enrolled in each of these classes, and
10 in a course eams a second grant if two teachers are employed. ‘These grants
are $600 per teacher and in addition, there is a supply and equipment grant
covering 2/3 of approved expenditure, up to but not exceeding $300 for each
technical teacher, and $10 for each technical student, For example, a district
which had 20 pupils in a technical course, with one teacher, would receive 2/3
of their approved expenditures up to but not exceeding $750, i.e. the grant
would not exceed $500, In the optional technical courses the Province will pay
Sis
UBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY
OF ALBERTA
50% of the cost of establishing such a course, not to exceed $100,
In elementary schools $15,00 a year is deducted for library, and the
Province supplements this with approximately $7.50 per classroom, This is done
by order-in-council in the amount of $22,500, Library and laboratory grants
are paid to secondary schools on the basis of 50% of approved expenditures, up
to: number of classrooms, plus one, miltiplied by $12.50.
Evening school classes approved by the Inspector, receive grants of
$3.00 per teacher for each session of approximately two hours' duration, and
$1.50 for each ccrresponding academic period of instruction.
The Province also pays the non-resident secondary school fee of $7.50
per month for each pupil coming from unorganized territory.
In outlying sections of the province there are communities which have
no assessment - and none is possible, Here the Province operates the school
and pays the teacher, raising what money it can locally through a committee.
Our estimate for the cost of this service this year is $133,200,
While no direct grants are paid for capital costs, the Province will
guarantee the interest on school district debentures, provided there is need
for the accommodation and the cost does not exceed $12,000 for one-room, and
$15,000 per classroom, for multiple-room schools. It also undertakes to pur-
chase debentures when they cannot be sold in the open market at a cost to the
district of 13% or less. In this way, districts which would have difficulty in
raising money are enabled to get it, andat a rate considerably below the open
market rate.
This system of grants may appear to be a rather complicated one. No-
one would rather see it simplified than the Department of Education, but in a
province where you have school district assessments running all the way from
$3,000 to $350,000 per teachers where you have per classroom costs varying
from under 2,000 to over $7,000, it is extremely difficult if not impossible,
to devise a simple formula which will also be equitable. The two guiding
principles which must be followed are:
1, That monies from the Provincial Treasurer go te those school
districts that require assistance; and
2, That this provincial support does the things it is supposed to do.
We have come @ long way from the old formula of $1.00 per teacher
per day, which was paid to rich and poor alike. Our objective has been to
equalize the incidence of educational costs up to a minimum standard of service,
andat the same time, enable strong districts to go as far beyond that minimum
as their elective school boards see fit, In this way, we have endeavored to
ensure a minimum provincial standard, and at the same time, reserve as wide a
degree as possible of local control over educational services.
ak? ed
MODERN OFFICE
UTINES AND PROCEDURES
by
MR, P.P.C, BYARS
The subject allocated for this session is “Moderr. Office Routines &
Procedures", Those of my listeners who attended the Short Course last year
will remember the excellent lecture on "Office Routine and Management" given
by Mr. J, F, Keeley, C.A, of the liunicipal Auditor's Branch, Because the sub-
ject of office routine and procedure is essentially very broad, 1 shall en-
deavour during the next half hour, to add some of my thoughts and ideas to
those expressed last year by Mr. Neeley. Perhaps next year another speaker
will be able to cover additional phases of the subject.
I think the best way to introduce today's topic is to remind you that
the past ten or fifteen years has seen a notable change in the type of road
building and other machinery in use in municipal public works’ projects. We
no longer use teams and fresnoes for building roads; nor do we send out horse-
drawn graders to drag up a mud road, Now-a-days we use letourneaux and power
graders, Farming operations are also being carried out on a much larger and
more mechanized scale than ever before, and along with the vast increase in
farm operations, there has developed a similar increase in municipal operations.
We have been quick to realize the value of modern power machinery for
farming operations and for municipal construction projects and effective main~
tenance work, The equipment we use in our public works operations is the most
modern machinery available, It represents a capital value far in excess of the
value of the old horse-drawn equipment of a nunber of years ago, I believe
municipalities are using modern power machinery because they are convinced that
it does a much better job than our old-time equipment and produces a more last-
ing and definitely superior finished road than we used to build, In addition,
the job is done economically and speedily.
Wow you may ask: “What has modern road machinery to do with a Talk
on Modern Office Routines and Procedures?" ‘The point is - just as there has
been a large-scale evolution during the past few years in the production and
use of power machinery, so has there been exceptional development in new office
techniques and procedures, and in the use of mechanized >ffice appliances and
equipment.
I sometimes think that we - as municipal men - have been so taken up
with the improvement ne can accomplish on the outside work of the municipality,
that we have been somewhat blind to the vast improvement we could make on our
inside work - i.e, in improving the efficiency of the Municipal Office, and
thereby providing better office service to our Ratepayers,
I think it is important for us to realize that municipal administration
today is a reasonably big business. The extent of the services furnished to the
PGR
people by the municipality usually represents the biggest volume of business
enterprise in each individual locality. If we admit that our local municipal
government is tig business, then it naturally follows that successful manage~
nent of the affairs of the municipality calls for careful and efficient adnini-
stration of all phases of municipal operations. This means that, if we desire
to give full value and services for the taxes we impose, we must ensure that
our municipal business will operate as efficiently as private enterprise.
It has been said that modern administrative techniques fully explored,
can yield big dividends in increased efficiency and dollar savings. I firmly
believe this statement to be true, yet in a number of municipal offices through~
out this Province, the Secretary-Treasurer is still expected to carry out his
duties through use of office equipment of a type that was modern thirty years
ago, and has long since been discarded by private business, 1 would not for one
moment suggest that the reason for this rests entirely with the Council. Some
of us prefer, either through lack of initiative or from hesitancy in trying out
new ideas, to continue to use‘a system we have grown up with, On the other hand,
though, it mst be admitted that some municipal councils pay very little atten-
tion to suggestions for new office equipment, possibly from the mistaken idea
that what is done in the office is not as important to the welfare of the com-
munity as vhat is done in the way of road work or other outside activities.
The Office of the Secretary-Treasurer is the focal point from which
all phases of the administration of the affairs of the liunicipality radiates,
and therefore we should not countenance continued use of impractical, out-moded
and cumbersome office procedures, A private business needs efficiency to in-
crease its profit; but a municipality needs efficiency even more because it makes
no profit. It deals only in service to the community, Efficiency in a municipal
office can then be said to represent increased service to the taxpayers. For
this reason, I believe that every modern method for ensuing increased efficiency
in municipal office operation should be explored if we expect the municipality
to be run on the same kind of efficient business basis as any other business
enterprise, The growth and complexity of municipal operations in these times
makes it necessary for members of Council and Secretary-Treasurers to do a little
realistic thinking on the subject of Modern Office Management.
Most municipal offices in Manitoba are staffed by the Secretary-Treas-
urer alone, or with the Secretary-Treasurer and one Assistant. Because of this,
you may ask: "How can modern office routine and use of machines assist in a one
or two-man office?" I think the answer lies in the fact that the average small
office carries more burden of detail per person than the larger offices, where
responsibilities for any given task can be delegated amongst the Staff on a
wider basis. In other words, the person in charge of a small office has much
more to look after than the person in charge of a large office. Notwithstanding
this fact, it is interesting to note that the trend towards mechanization of
office procedures is much more evident in larger municipalities than in smaller
municipalities; yet, I firmly believe the volume of detailed work which must be
done in the small office makes it necessary for us to search diligently for new,
improved procedures.
The majority of Manitoba municipal Secretary-Treasurers use a Columnar
Tax Roll. This is a ruled form 17 inches by 23 inches in size, and both sides
of the sheet must be used to record the Assessment and Tax Rates, A sheet this
size is quite cumbersome, Use of the Columnar fax %oll requires that the roll
must be re-written each year - that is, we must enter the name and address, to-
= 5h <.
gether with the legal description of the land and the assessed valuation, There
must be carried forward from the previous year's roll, any unpaid balances of
prior years’ taxes, This Roll must be summarized and balanced after the Tax
Rates for the various purposes have been inserted. After that, Tax No ices
are written out and mailed,
I believe all municipal Secretary-Treasurers will agree that the pre-
paration of the Tax Roll and mailing of the Tax Statements constitutes one of
the most important tasks in a municipal office, Some municipalities have in-
stalled Addressograph equipment, and it has been found that the use of Address-
ograph equipment not only speeds up the work but eliminates error in transcription.
The same plates as are used for the Tax Roll can be used for mailing the Tax
Notices, and the result is that EXACTLY the same information as appears on the
Tax Roll appears on the Tax Notice.
In the Province of Alberta, it would appear that an increasing number
of municipalities are going into tax accounting machines similar to the tax ac-
counting machine installed in St, James! kunicipality by Hr. Voelker this year.
Some large cities use punched card accounting systems for Tax Rolls, Time will
not permit me to go into detail concerning the various machine accounting systens,
but Ido feel that large municipalities should investigate this type of tax
accounting.
A number of municipalities use card record systems for Tax Rolls, such
as the Kardex System of Remington-Rand or the Acme System which is handled by
Willson Stationery, This permits the use of a ten-year Tax Roll - the completed
assessment and tax roll for ten years being produced on two cards each 8 inches
by 7 inches in size, When you compare this to the Columnar Tax Roll, which is
used for only one year, I am sure you will realize at once that it is a concise
and simple method, Jt’has one other advantage. When I was a boy going to school,
Iwas alvays taught to add up and down, not across; yet the use of the Columnar
Tax Roll requires additions across the sheet, The use of the hardex type of
Roll permits normal, vertical adding,
A large number of Saskatchewan rural municipalities use a ledger-type
Tax Roll, which first came into use back around 1937. I am sure that the con
tinued use of this ledger Tax Roll over the years indicates clearly that the
Saskatchewan municipal secretary-treasurers are satisfied that a ledger-type
Tax Roll is a good system and perhaps some of us could investigate this and see
whether it could te adapted for use in Manitoba,
Pesonally, 1 favour the Card System combined with the use of Address-
ograph equipment, The cost involved in installing a card-type Tax Roll, to-
gether with the purchase price of an Addressograph is, I believe, very little
more than the cost of ten complete sets of Columnar Tax Rolls and the Binders
for them, hy experience has been that Tax Roll work has been performed much
more rapidly and with less element of error through use of a visible Card Record
or Ten-year Tax Roll.
Preparation of Yoters' Lists
There has been an enormous increase in the population of a number of
Manitoba municipalities during the years since the end of the war, There has
also been an extremely large increase in the number of taxable properties that
change hands each year, and each time a parcel of land changes hands it results
= 6he
in a change being required to be made in the municipal records.
A change in ownership requires decision of a Court of Revision order-
ing the name of the new owner to be entered on the Assessment and Tax Roll. It
necessitates a change in the Voters! List also, I think we could simplify much
of our work in this connection through use of a ‘progress chart' or ‘routine
change list’, What I mean by the use of these words is simply that we should
realize at the outset all the changes that naturally follow from any one change
in ownership, and gear our routines to take care of everything connected with
the change at the same time.
For example, we could eliminate a number of complaints of new owners
whose names do not appear on the Yoters' List at election time if we were to
keep a master voters' list. This could be accomplished by use of 'line-dex' or
other similar equipment, and by following a practice similar to that used by
telephone companies for use in their information service, As a property changes
hands, after the Court of Revision has dealt with the change, we should attach
to the copy of title, or change of owner form (where the change is one of real
owner), a routine slip on which we have listed all the necessary changes re-
quired to be made in municipal records. A space could be allocated for in-
itialling by the Secretary-Treasurer to ensure that each change had been made,
The name of the previous owner could then be removed from the 'line-dex' master
copy of the Voters’ List and the new owner's name inserted in its proper al-
phabetic sequence,
J have been giving consideration to installation of this type of equip-
ment, We have approximately nine thousand names on our Yoters' List, and ap-
proximately one thousand properties change hands each year, Under our present,
system, it is necessary to check the census records for each inhabitant of the
municipality each year, This means a tremendous amount of detailed checking
before the Voters' List is printed, I am convinced that I can cut down the
anount of work through installation of 'line-dex', Instead of handling nine
thousand census cards each year, we will only have to change the one thousand
resulting fron new owners and residents, This will result, I am sure, ina
vast saving of time, Perhaps some of my listeners have other time saving id-
eas for preparation of Voters! Lists. If so, 1 would be glad to have them
discussed, because the preparation of Voters! Lists is becoming a very arduous
task, especially in suburban municipalities,
Accounting Procedures:
One of the greatest aids to efficiency in office routine is to try to
simplify procedures to as great an extent as possible, A good aid to sim-
plification of accounting procedure is achieved by the codification of accounts.
Every entry that is made in any of the accounting records of the municipality
ultimately finds its way into the general ledger, and from there to the annual
financial statement, For convenience in preparation of statements, whether
they be monthly statements prepared by the Secretary-Treasurer or annual fin-
ancial statements prepared by the municipal auditor, every account in the general
ledger can be set out in the same sequence and under the various sections as
they are listed in the last financial statement prepared by your auditor. That
is, your general ledger will be made up in sections containing: (1) Revenue
Assets (2) Current Liabilities (3) Trust Assets (4) Trust Liabilities (5) Capital
Assets (6) Capital Liabilities (7) Replacement Reserves Section (3) Revenue
Section (9) Expenditure Section,
=e
Under this system the receipts register will contain a number of col-
unns headed in exactly the same order as the headings of the various accounts
in the general ledger, and the disbursements register will likewise have
columns headed in the same order as postings from it will follow in sequence
the accounts in the general ledger, The month end posting of the general led-
ger is greatly facilitated because each entry follows in direct order and after
the general ledger has been posted, it is a simple matter to transfer the bal-
ances of assets and liabilities on to the monthly statement by inserting the
monthly statement form in an adding machine and simply punch the balances shown
in the ledger one by one in proper sequence. The same procedure can be followed
for all sections of the general ledger and for the receipts and disbursements
as well as for the revenue and expenditure statements,
‘iLing System
lio I suppose no talk on modern office routines and procedures would
complete without some mention of office filing systems. Indeed, the first
stage in successful office administration has been said to be the planning
stage. It is just as important for us to plan our office routines and pro-
cedures as it is to prepare a budget each year, We must, if we want tobe ef-
ficient in our everyday work, plan our office work as effectively as we plan
any other phase of our activities. An office that operates hodgepodge with-
out any system or olan cannot operate efficiently, In fact, in handling our
office work, we must plan ahead constructively the order in which things should
be done and the method of doing them, This means we must be orderly about our
procedures.
One of the basic starting points in office control, indeed the most
important in some respects, is the institution of a proper filing system.
Present-day filing systems are far more effective than they were when most
municipalities were first organized, Yet it is surprising the number of offices
that have not modernized their files during the intervening years. No municipal
office can function efficiently without a good method of keeping records, To
be able to produce a certain record without unnecessary delay at any given mo-
nent is an important aspect of filing. Some records need to be kept indefinitely,
and we must know where to lay our hands on them at any time, A flexible, easy
+2 operate filing system designated to meet specific requirements of your
office will prove its worth, and will be a time-saver for you, Office station-
ery firms such as Willson Stationery, Remington-Rand and Uffice Specialty can
supply you with up-to-date filing methods and assist you to get the most out
of your files, Most municipal offices seem to use a simple alphabetic filing
routine, In a small office, ordinary alphabetic filing that allows for some
expansion can be used, Larger offices would do well to investigate either
numeric or subject filing. One of the most efficient filing systems 1 ever
ran across was that used in the Armed Forces, It was a numeric system based
on code numbers for cach phase of activities. if ever the time came when we
desired to standardize our filing procedures so that each office would use the
same filing practices, I am sure that with some slight modifications, we could
produce an effective numeric system to serve our needs,
File storage is also important. In the modern office most files are
housed in counter storage cabinets there>y making good use of space that other-
wise would become a ready catch-all. What to do about your old records is
another vexing problen that modern methods can overcome, Small photographic
reproductions of important records that otherwise could not be destroyed can
- 57 -
now be made and housed in a small compact space.
‘The main thing in the filing of records is to know yhere the record
is filed, It is a funny thing that usually one needs to look something up
after it is filed, but very seldom before it is filed. We should get into
the habit of using a good filing system, and once it is underway keep the
habit. If you want inspiration in setting up a workable system, I would re-
commend that the next time you go to make a purchase from a tobacco and cig-
arette stand operated in a munber of office buildings or in the Legislative
Buildings by the Institute for the Blind, you pay particular attention to the
operator. Although he has over one hundred different items available for sale
on his stand, he can always produce what you ask for without any delay because
they have a specified place for everything and everything is kept in its pro-
per place, He reaches for and obtains the desired article through course of
habit, That is why we should develop the habit of filing properly, and we
will gain in efficiency by doing so.
Iam sure you will realize that it is impossible for me in the half
hoar allocated for this topic to go into detail about all the modern office
aids available to the Secretary-Treasurer ani Staff of a busy municipal office.
However, before closing, I feel 1 must say a word or two about office appli-
ances such as typewriters, adding machines, duplicators, cheque writers and
postage meters. During the last few years, great forward strides have been
taken in production of office appliances. Electric tyepriters are now avail-
able that are especially useful in offices where up to twelve or fourteen
copies of reports such as Council Minutes are required to te prepared, I can
say from experience that the electric typewriter increases efficiency and is
more speedy than the ordinary typewriter, Another useful machine in a muni-
cipal office is a calculator. If you require an adding machine and feel that
you cannot afford an automatic non-ribbon type calculator in addition, then
you might investigate a printing calculator, I think this is one of the most
versatile office aids available today, It adds, multiplies, subtracts and di-
vides, and cin be used as an ordinary adding machine or as a calculator. Dup-
licating machines are also a great help to us, and no municipal office should
be without one. This was clearly demonstrated in the case of my own office.
Until a few years ago, it was customary for us to have our Voters! Lists printed
each year, With rising costs, the price climbed year by year until it reached
almost one thousand dollars each year for printing a Voters! List conta ining
about nine thousand names, In addition, the task of proof-reading the printer's
copy after the type was set necessitated hours of overtime work, We bought a
duplicating machine and proceeded to make our own Voters! Lists and this has
resulted in a reduction of some seven hundred dollars expense each year,
Now in conclusion, I hope that I have given you something of interest.
I realize that my talk has not been as detailed as I would have liked to make it,
but time would not permit because each of the various items I have discussed is
in reality a subject for discussion all by itself, There are amongst my lis-
teners some who have pioneered in mechanization of office procedures and I would
invite them to discuss their procedures during the next fifteen or twenty min-
utes, I recently read two quotations which I think should be passed on to both
elected municipal officials and secretary-treasurers. "The greatest source of
waste in business, industry and government service, is the failure of people to
live up to their possibilities. It has been said that most of us use only one~
third of our potential capacities. if so, one goal of the administrator is to
= 58 =
develop still more capacities". AND "Executives are paid to think, to plan,
to initiate and to execute. The pile of work on his desk, or the hours he
spends in the office mean nothing, His standard is the quality of the ideas
he develops and of the results he gets.",
2.89%
KNOW HOW AND KNOW WHY
by
Professor A,.S,R, Tweedie
When considering remarks suitable for an occasion of this nature, I
was, like other observers of the activities of this week, impressed by the fact
that those secretary-treasurers who are attending this course have devoted much
time toa consideration of methods whereby the standards of their profession
might be improved and maintained. Against this background, it might be desir-
able to invite investigation of the basic reason why it is now considered de-
irable to set up and maintain professional standards.
‘This thought might be developed further to suggest that it is now de-
sirable to consider, in general terms, the difference between "know how" and
Know why", It may be that, particularly on the North American Continent, we
are suffering an over-dose of "know how", It is certain that we are achieving
an increasing measure of technical efficiency in the conduct of our daily ac-
tivities, and even more so in the conduct of that body of research which will
ultimately affect our daily activities. It is far from certain that equivalent
attention is being paid to questions which lie not in the field of technical
success, but in the broader, and often more meaningful field, of "know why".
By the nature of their occupation, secreatry-treasurers are regularly
brought into direct contact with a cross-section of the population and their
attitudes and remarks, however casual, are thereby likely to produce a greater
public reaction than are the attitudes and comments of those whose field of
contact is much less wide, Accordingly, secretary-treasurers are in the position,
whether they wish to recognize the fact or not, to exert considerable influence
in the building of community opinion, It might be desirable if they were to
exert this in the direction of encouraging a public examination, not of the
techniques involved in "know how" but in the attitudes involved in "know why",
‘This is particularly important in the growing Canada of today, when
old communities are rapidly forging ahead, and new communities are taking shape.
any new Canadians who have joined us are refugees from a situation in which
political and economic restrictions were too great for them to accept. It might
be desirable to recognize that we may have also in our midst some new Canadians
who are in fact, refugees not so much from economic distress or political author-
itarianism, as from intellectual dictatorship which progressively sought to
mould the individual rather than to allow him freedom of speech, thought and
action,
The contribution which this type of "displaced person" can make to the
development of Canada of tomorrow may be in direct relation to his feeling of
intellectual and spiritual freedom, quite distinct from any feelings of po-
litical freedom and economic self-sufficiency.
A facet of this argument may be noted in an extract from an editorial
- 60-
in a recent issue of the London Times which said, "A country made great by re-
sourcefulness and energy is in many places slowly strangling itself with res-
trictive practices by a placing of convenience and comfort before efficiency
and productivity, by a plain disinclination for hard work." Those who, no
matter from what country they come, have electad to seek Canadian citizenship,
may have done so because of their opposition to such a situation, and may be
seeking in Canada the type of life which offers them this form of intellectual
and spiritual freedom and satisfaction as well as the more obvious forms of
economic self-sufficiency and a reasonable degree of material comfort.
€ there is, as I believe is the case, a growing body of new Canadians
whose motivation in seeking Canadian citizenship is as I have suggested, it
becomes increasingly important to insure that they are absorbed into the Can-
adian community on all levels, in terms which will afford them some guarantee
that their basic desire for freedom in tnis area is observed, and that they are
not required to live in a community in which the material rewards of advanced
"know how! are sought to the exclusion of those other rewards which are obtained
only by closer consideration of what is involved in "know why".
The influence of secretary-treasurers in helping to develop the com-
munities in which these new Canadians will make their contribution is likely
to be great. I therefore make no apology for calling to your attention the
fact that the future development of the Canadian conmunity lies not solely in
the field of material advancement, but has within it certain elements which may
best be studied only when acceptance is given to the fact that "know why" must
at all times keep pace with "know how", and must, at certain times march several
paces ahead,
a6rs.
CHE ORIGINS OF MODERN BRITISH LOCAL GOVERNMENT
by
PROFESSOR W.L. MORTON
In so brief a treatment of so large a topic it will be well to begin
with two or three definitions, By "local government" the British mean what we
Canadians call “municipal government", By local, or municipal, government in
this paper I mean the administration of local affairs carried out on the spot by
local people. And by the term "modern" used in this context, I intend the per-
iod between 1633 and 1933, though most cf what I shall have to.say will deal with
the early years of the period,
In Great Britain all government is of one of two kinds, central and
local. ‘The central government consists of the monarch, the courts, the Depart-
ments of Government, and Parliament, and deals with all general and national
ratters. ‘The competence of the central government is, of course, unlimited,
The local governments are limited in area, subordinate in jurisdiction, and
confined to the administration of local affairs, in short, are municipal, not
sovereign governments.
It is perhaps with surprise, therefore, that the student of British
local government learns that Knglish local government is older than the central
government of the United Kingdom, The local government of England is Anglo-Saxon
in origin, the centrel government is largely Norman-French in its institutional
beginnings. ven if one claims, as one might, that the monarchy begins with
Alfred, the units and institution of local government are older than Alfred.
In a sense, indeed, England was made by its Saxon kings harnessing together
local governnents,
It is not the purpose of this paper, of course, to explore these ori-
gins; they are noted only because British local government in 1033, as even to-
day, had many elements which had come down from pre-Conquest times. For example,
the oldest known and the smallest territorially of the units of local govern-
ment was the Saxon township, It is with us still in hanitoba, but only as a
unit of survey, But it was the first and most elementary form of Saxon govern-
ment with its "moot", or meeting of the men of the tovmship for the administration
of local justice and local government, as it still exists, for example, in a
much modified form in Untario and in the New England town meetings, Next above
the township in size was the hundred (or lathe, rape, or wapentake) which was
chiefly concerned with matters of police. Next was the shire, or county, the
largest and best known of the units of local government; we have counties in
Canada east of Lake Superior, indeed, had them as units of local government for
a few years in Manitoba, until the county form of government proved too expen-
sive for a scantily populated province with a relatively low assessment, Fin-
ally, there was the borough, originally a fortiried place, but which became a
unit of urban local government, and, like the county, a unit of parliamentary
representation when after many centuries Parliament came into being, with its
~ 62 -
House of Commons, that is, of communities, of the counties and boroughs of
England,
All these units of local government were flourishing, if changed in
many respects, in the England of 1833 One of them, indeed, had undergone a
chang: of name as well. The township was then known as the parish, For the
parish of England, roughly speaking, coincided with the township, as in
feudal times, the township in probably the majority of cases had coincided with
the manor, When the manor and its court ~ before 1633, nearly all local govern-
ment was done in a court by judicial process - fell into disuse, the Tudor
parliaments, faced by the social problems caused by the rise of commerce and
the enclosure movement, looked about for some local government people on whom
to impose responsibility for dealing with those problems. They lighted on the
parish, which with its general meeting, its vestry and its church wardens,
looked like a body capable of doing a job of local government, Thus the parish,
without ceasing to be the basic unit of ecclesiastical government, became a
unit of civil governnent also, as, in a sense, the parishes of the Red River
Settlement did in the early years of Manitoba.
‘The chief task imposed on the parish, we must note, was the care of
the poor - that is, everyone unable to provide for his own support, including
those we should call the unemployed, A great series of statutes in Tudor times,
culminating in the Acts of 1598 and 1601, created the Poor Law, made it the
obligation of the parish to provide for its own poor and to levy a rate - or
local tax - to provide the means, Thereafter, it is instructive to observe,
the Poor Law remained the major concern of English local government until early
in the present century, and the study of English local government is primarily
a study in the administration of the Poor Law down to 1909.
One other great change in the pattern of English local government was
the rise of the Justices of the Peace under the Tudors to the position of being
the actual governors of the parishes and counties of England, There are many
reasons why the local government of England, outside the larger boroughs, should
have passed into the hands of the local gentry. But the chief reason in this
context was that most of the work of local government was, not a duty perforned
by paid officials, but an unpaid obligation laid on the ordinary subject, such
as the obligation to perform six days statute labour with his team on the roads,
or to be one of the "watch and ward" which policed the varish, county, ov
borough. When they failed to do this, and they failed faithfully, they were pre-
sented" before the Justices of the Peace in Petty, Special or Quarter Sessions
and fined for the dereliction, The fine went to pay for the work that had been
left undone. Indeed the Justices of the Peace might legislate as well as tax,
as they did when they introduced the Speenhamland system of poor relief in 1796.
Of English local government, so formed and nducted, one may say quite
tersely that by any standards, ancient or modern, it was hopelessly corrupt and
inefficient by 1700, One may instance the "corporations" of the boroughs, nom-
inally the representative government of their towns, but usually in fact Closed,
often hereditary, bodies, who spent the revenues in feasting and drinking, and
buying themselves ever more costly official robes. The reaction of the parlia—
ments of the eighteenth century, however, was not to reform this picturesque
but inefficient tangle of local government, The procedure they adopted was to
give special powers by private Act of Parliament to parishes or boroughs which
might ask for them, or to create what were called ad hoc commissions, that is,
special bodies with specific functions, such as a Paving Commission for Lower
- 63 =
Footsole, or a Sewage Commission for Nether Underclose, or a Turnpike Trust to
improve a road the parishes had failed to keep up. So extensively was this
procedure followed that by the beginning of the nineteenth century the original
pattern of local government was spotted over with a patchwork of special bodies,
some of them most effective, some soon becoming as inefficient and corrupt as
the older units.
Before tracing the great changes in local government which were to
follow the Reform Bill of 1632, which gave the vote to the English middle class,
it would be well to list the main characteristics of the old kind of local
government, It was, in the first place, severely local; the central government
did, and could do little to supervise and control it. It was governed and
guided by custom and common law rather than by statute. It was, in theory, at
least, government carried on by the unremunerated performance of public ob-
ligations, In consequence, it was government carried on much less by adminis-
trative than by judicial process, That is to say, a town did not levy a tax
and pave the streets; by common law or custom every shop keeper or householder
was obliged to pave the street in front of his premises. If he failed to do
0, he was haled into court and fined, the fine paying the cost of doing the
job. The result was usually a street of mixed potholes and flagstones, and
hence the Paving Commissions,
As already implied, the 1630's saw great and long delayed changes in
the government of the United Kingdom, both central and the local government,
but especially in the latter, These changes were a result of the whole his-
torical development of British society, the new enclosure movement, the In-
dustrial Revolution, the Evangelical Movement, the beginnings of radical dem-
ocracy, We may, however, point to two which especially affected the develop-
ment of local government.
The first of these was an ideal factor, the formulation of the
Utilitarian philosophy by Jeremy Bentham, Bentham, a queer little man with
a great systematizing intellect, spent his life writing projects of reform in
law and government, He drew around him a small band of followers, among whom
dames and John Stuart Will were numbered, and of whom Edwin Chadwick, secretary
of the Poor Law Commission of 1633, was the latest and most favoured. Of these
men and their work G, K, Young has written: "They came down into a world where
mediaeval prejudice, Tudor Law Stuart economics, and Hanoverian patronage
still luxuriated in wild confusion, and by the straight and narrow paths they
cut we are walking still." ‘That is true even in this country, for Durham vas
much influenced by the Utilitarians and like them, a great advocate of demo-
cratic municipal government.
‘The Utilitarians summed up their philosophy in the maxim of the
"greatest happiness of the greatest number", That was the end of government,
and the end was to be achieved by economy and efficiency. Tobe economic and
efficient, government had to be systematic, Local government, to be systematic,
had to be centrally supervised, These concepts were written into the Report
of the Poor Law Commission of 183 by Chadwick, His latest biographer, S. E.
Finer, writes that", . , the administrative proposals of the Report...
have proved the source of nearly all the important developments in English
local government, viz., central supervision, central inspection, central audit,
a professional local government service controlled by local elective bodies,
and the adjustment of areas to administrative exigencies."
As this quotation indicates, the Benthamites believed not only in a
es
centrally supervised system; they believed also in expert administration and
democratic control. They believed in the expert because they expected him to
be honest and efficient where the officials of the old amateur system are cor-
vupt and wasteful, They believed in democracy, because they thought it was
only by the identification of the ruler and the ruled by the ballot that govern-
ment could be kept from exploiting the governed. (It was Bentham who coined the
slogan "one man, one vote", which in Canada became "representation by population")
But they did not propose to make the old units of parish and county democratic,
The best that could be hoped, they thought, was to filch the more important
matters of government from those bodies and tum such matters over to independent
and elective boards, ‘Thus the new Poor Law was not, like the old, to be admin-
istered by J, P.'s and churchwardens, but by elected Poor Law Guardians in
Unions of parishes big enough to support adequate poor houses. This contin-
uation of the ad hoc devices of the eighteenth century was to leave 2 great mark
on British local government, as indeed it has on our own, for our School Boards
are a Benthamite inheritance. On the other hand, the boroughs, excepting London,
were reformed by making the Mayor and Councils elective in 1535; the Squire and
the Parson were not so strong in the boroughs as in the counties,
If the Benthamite philosophy factor may be termed an ideal one, the
second to be cited as a major cause of the great changes in local government in
‘the 1630's may be called practical, It was the rise of the industrial economy,
the new cities and of middle class democracy,
The Industrial Revolution brought with it the new factory towns, which
went up as quickly as our prairie cities did at the beginning of this century.
The result was the creation of insanitary slums, so harmful that it reversed
that fall in the death rate which had begun in the eighteenth century, This
was a phenomenon of London, the industrial “idlands and the North, In the south
of England there was great wretchedness too, but here the cause was the poverty
of the agricultural labourer, Agricultural wages were low and the Acts of
Settlement, which permitted the unemployed and indigent to obtain relief only
in their own parishes, kept the labourers from migrating in sufficient numbers
to the new towns of the north or to the colonies, Rural poverty in the south
and periodic unemployment in the North meant an appalling burden on the poor
rates, and one of the first acts of the reformed Parliament was to push the
Cabinet of Earl Grey into appointing the Poor Law Commission of 1833, with all
the changes it was to effect in local government,
With the Industrial Revolution, the Enclish middle class asserted
itself, Its new wealth and power, its hard practical ideas of economy and
efficiency, made it contemptuous of the splendid wastefulness and neighbourly
corruptness of the landed gentry. They demanded and got a share of political
power in the Reform Bill of 1632, It was to members of this class that the
Poor Law of 1034 and, still more, the Municipal Corporations Act of 1635 gave
control of the Poor Law and the boroughs. The country side, except for the
Poor Law, remained under the control of the gentry for another half century.
The changes had begun, however, and were carried forward irresistibly
by Benthamite and humanitarian reformers, by the continuation of the Industrial
Revolution and of the growth and wealth of the uroan middle class. There was,
indeed, a kind of inner necessity in the process, The Factory Act of 1833,
which limited the hours of child labour, for example - and another piece of
Legislation Chadwick influenced ~ gave off two by-products. One was the prin-
ciple of central inspection, necessary if the Act was to be enforced, The other
was the beginning of state-supported education, since it would not do simply to
a Ope
shut the children out of the factories to leave them in idle mischief in the
streets, And Chadwick, wrestling mightily as Secretary of the central Poor
Law Commission, found himself faced with problens of education and sanitation,
The purpose of the Poor Law of 103k was to make work preferrable to relief, But
how could ignorant and sickly people be driven to work? Only by being made en-
lightened and healthy, So the great reformer was driven to spend more of his
time on plans for education and health than on the Poor Law, From his effort
in the latter field, aided by the return of Asiatic cholera in 1847 and 185h,
was to come the Board of Health of 1648, and the many later developments which
led Disraeli to say of government in the 1870's, "Sanitas sanitatis, omnia est
sanitas." The central change which was proceeding, it may be said by way of
Summary was one from personal and collective responsibility for the performance
of basic services to collective responsibility for a widening range of services,
and to collective action render general regulation and at local initiative to
perform and extend those services.
It is not possible to trace this latter development in any detail.
Slowly a system of local government was formed, and crowned by the creation of
the central Board of Local Government in 1671,’ Slowly rural local government
was democratized, notably by the Act of 1683 which established elective County
Councils, and the Act of 109, which made the establishment of elective Parish
Councils permissive. A strong tendency developed to do away with ad hoc boards
and to bring all matters under the control of parish, county, or borough coun-
cils, as Education was by the great act of 1902, Much was done in the puzzling
and vexatious field of the adjustment of areas to function, The Poor Law was
liquidated in 1909-1911, and finally in 1929 and 1933 the whole system was re-
vised and consolidated - only to find that war and the social service state
were to demand new adjustments in local government.
Certain comments may perhaps be offered on this sketch of the origin
of Eritish local government, The first is the inevitable one of how important,
how practically important, municipal government is. It is government which is
daily, immediate and indispensable, If Ottawa were to slide into its river, we
should be shocked, but not immediately disturbed. But if the municipal govern-
ment and services of Winnipeg were suddenly to dissolve, most Winnipeggers would
be saved only by flight or death by thirst from perishing in their own filth,
The second comment is to note the centuries-old British insistence that local
governnent must be popular, which in the last century has meant democratic,
It must, that is, engage the citizen's interest and loyalty, and command his
best service, There can be municipal government which is not democratic, but
it is not the kind we have known, and it does not even attempt what is perhaps
the prime function of municipal government, as Durham renarked, the training
of active citizens,
while, however, municipal covernment is indispensable, and while we
believe it ought to ve democratic, experience has shown that central supervision
and direction are necessary if municipal government is to yield its best re-
sults, On this point, one can do no better than to turn to John Stuart Mill
who in Representative Government wrote: "The authority which is most conver-
sant with principles should be Supreme over principles, while that which is most
competent in details should have details left to it, The principal business of
the central authority should be to give instruction, of the local authority to
apply to it. Power may be localized, but knowledge, to be most useful, must
be centralized; there must be somewhere a focus at which all its scattered rays
are collected, that the broken and coloured lights which exist elsewhere may
= 66 =
find there what is necessary to complete and purify them,"
Then too, one may note the long struggle between the "compendious"
authority, the local authority which looks after all functions of local govern-
ment, and the special authority, devoted to some one function, Which is the
better principle to follow in local government? Should, as I myself think,
Education come under the municipal councils, or remain under separate boards?
Was there ever a case for bringing the Provincial Hydro system under municipal
control, or the Provincial Telephones? These questions are asked only to sug-
gest that history seems to indicate that here we have a problem for which there
is no final solution, but only particular solutions according to time and cir
cumstance,
The same may be said of the problems of adjusting area to function.
The shires of the Saxon kings are perhaps not the best units for local govern-
nent in the twentieth century, the boundaries of Winnipeg of 1874 perhaps not
what they should be in 1953, the rural municipalities of 1884 perhaps not big
enough for the administration capacity, the shifts in population and the motor
traffic of 1953.
In summary, British local government, in which we may include our own,
presents at any moment of history a set of equilibria, of compromises, among
alternatives, between expert administration and representative democracy, cen-
tral and local control, function and area, compendious authorities and special
authorities, tradition and reform, Today the advantages are all on the side of
the expert, of the central government, of function and svecial authorities. of
reform rather than tradition. In consequence we face, if indeed we have not al-
ready incurred, the danger of losing what is most characteristic and precious in
our municipal government, namely, that it is in very fact both local and deno-
cratic. Only strength, quality and devotion in municipal representatives and of-
ficial can prevent the central authorities, in the day of the welfare state, from
willy-nilly taking over the administration of municipal government,
Does this sketch of the origins of modern British local government
suggest any preventative of such an untoward outcome of present developments?
Perhaps it does suggest that the test of vitality in local government is that
it should touch the interests, arouse the loyalty and command the services of
the best citizens. What factor chiefly ensures that municipal government will
meet this test? We all feel it ought to do so, because we are all convinced of
its importance, I think, however, that the essential matter is not that of the
importance of any given detail of municipal government, The really decisive
thing is the bigness of the whole job a unit of municipal government is required
to do. A unit must be big enough and its functions complex enough to require
and stimulate capacity in the elected representative and the appointed official,
to demand order in the transaction of business and to inspire decorum in all its
proceedings, In short, I would conclude with the proposition that in this
Province we ought to be thinking in terms of larger units, with heavier and
more general responsibilities, Let our slogan be, unification locally, de-
centralization provincially. Only so, I believe, can we keep our municipal
government at once local and democratic,
- 67
PROBLEMS OF LOCAL GOVERNMENT RE-ORGANIZATION
by
MR. ELSWOOD F, BOLE
‘The problems cf Municipal Government Reorganization are many, The
fact that the problems are many are the best reasons for examining them, dis-
cussing them and trying to establish guiding principals that have common ap-
plication,
Basically the problem is to provide services to people in groups that
it is not possible or economical for them to provide for themselves.
The discussion usually works its way round to the two basic problens
of - 1, how many people as taxpayers or how many dollars of assessment
are required as a taxation base to finance the service required,
and- 2, on what sized scale or operating unit can you get adequate ser-
vice at lowest cost.
These are the two basic princigals that I propose to discuss to-day
and sone of the problems of application.
Let us examine what I call basic principles and reasons for calling
them that.
Hion many people are required as taxpayers or how many dollars of
assessment are required as a taxation base to finance a service is of course
related to the size of the unit of service required, and to the amount of capi-
tal funds required in addition to the operating cost.
‘An example I can think of at this time is how big does an Urban
or Suburban unit have to be to finance the building and operating of a secon-
dary school (High School).
it is imsortant to separate in our thinking the problems of
financing the building and financing the operation, in this case the size
suitable to finance the operation takes precedence as it continues for the
longest time and is the biggest factor in the long term cost,
The financing of a school has led many liunicipal and school admini-
strators to look with jealous eyes to the larger unit that appears to have ad~
vantage in borrowing power over a longer period for repayment. It is better to
work on the Problem of how to borrow for capital financing than to give up in
many cases the economies of a small unit.
Ihave dealt with it on the basis of schools but let us examine it on
the basis of Public Works. To-day the type of road grader that is most effec-
tive is one that costs between 15-25 thousand dollars, This type does the work
that is required. It is not feasable or economical for a very small hiunicipal-
ity to purchase and operate a grader unit of this size, Therefore this tends
to push the size of the operating unit up to where the minimum requirements
“i6B i=,
can be met and used.
It is rather interesting on the next point as to what size uit can
give adequate service at minimum cost, There has been a group of theorists
who have propounded the theory that the larger the unit of administration the
lower the per capita cost,
‘The examination of this point by analysis of administration units in
Wanitoba and elsewhere indicate the larger sized unit if any change increase
in costs due to pyramiding of supervisory personnel to direct the effectives.
In other services such as Police and Fire when the point of reasonably
adequate protection is reached, the very large group tends to demand and get
equality of equipment and manpower in each area, regardless of the need, This
has been a factor in increasing costs.
Gradually there emerges the fact that if the Municipality is too
small it cannot provide the service and if it is too large it costs too much,
What is the minimum size for Rural or Urban Units.
You vill recall these passages in the Provincial-Kunicipal Committee
report as follows:
"REPORT OF THE EXPLORATORY SUB-COMMITTEE ON THE ORGANIZATION OF
Rural. LOCAL GOVEPNKENT SERVICES OUTSIDE THE GREATER WINNIPEG AREA."
‘The Sub-committee believes that some municipalities should be enlarged
80 that all are of a size that would measure up, approximately, to the following
standards:
1. Taxable assessment; three to five million dollars.
. Maximum population; to be in the vicinity of 6,000.
3. Size: 15 to 18 townships or 30,000 to 40,000 taxable acres.
The Sub-committee does not expect that the consolidation of municipal-
ities would result in substantial decreases in cost but it would produce im-
proved facilities, There is a tendency to supply services according to means
at hand, To what extent service rendered may vary in municipalities of dif-
ferent sizes is difficult to establish,
"REPORT OF THE EXPLORATORY SUB-COMMITTEE ON THE ORGANIZATION OF
LOCAL GOVERNMENT SiRVICES IN THE GREATER WINNIPEG AREA,"
Ketropolitan
‘The Sub-committee inquired into the possibility of organizing on a
metropolitan basis the following services as well: fire protection, police
protection, and education. In connection with fire and police protection it was
generally agreed that organization on a metropolitan basis would be likely to
increase costs substantially without bringing a corresponding increase in bene-
fits received. It was pointed out that at least two attempts have been made in
the past, without success, to organize a metropolitan fire department, There
exists, furthermore, the complicating factor that the City of Winnipeg requires
partictlarly expensive fire and police services owing to the heavy concentration
= 69's.
of large buildings in the downtown area and the heavier incidence of crime in-
evitable in a metropolitan centre, It was suggested that there might be some
unfairness in obliging the municipalities to contribute to the cost of expen-
sive services which are required in Winnipeg alone, On the other hand it was
contended that the main business districts in Winnipeg furnish jobs and neces-
sary facilities of all kinds to residents of the suburbs as well as to residents
of the city itself and consequently that if the existence of these districts
gives rise to special fire and police problems, suburban residents should share
in the cost of handling these problems, as they benefit, along with the people
of Winnipeg, from the presence of those business and other facilities which
caused the problems to exist, Another suggestion put forward was that some
suburbs are able to maintain fire and police services which are actually in~
adequate for their needs, because in an emergency they could call upon the
extensive resources of the Winnipeg fire and police departments; therefore, it
was claimed, the City of Winnipeg is, in effect, maintaining stand-by facilities
which supply protection for the suburban municipalities as well as for the city
itself, although the city alone pays for the cost of their upkeep, After weigh-
ing the pros and cons the Sub-committee agreed that it would generally be most
advantageous to maintain the present organization of fire and police facilities,
with every encouragement given, honever, to further arrangements for cooperation
between the municipalities, in addition to those which already exist.
In regard to education the Sub-committee took the view that where the
operating unit was below some minimum size, the facilities and range of courses
available to students would be less than satisfactory. On the other hand it
was agreed that an operating unit might be too large as well, involving the
need for considerable supervision which would add to costs without adding cor-
respondingly to benefits received. Precisely at what point a unit becomes too
small or too large is, of course, a matter of opinion, The Sub-committee felt
that the school systems of several suburban municipalities (and of course of
the City of Winnipeg) were already large enoush to provide reasonably adequate
facilities for primary and secondary education, and consequently no great
benefits mould be gained by them in being amalgamated into a larger school dis-
trict. The Sub-committee agreed, however, that several of the school units
operating within the metropolitan area were too small and that amalgamation of
them into larger units would be advantageous, In those municipalities which
contained two or more school districts, this might be achieved merely by amal-
gamating the several school districts of the one municipality, thereby creating
one school district coterminous with the municipal boundaries, Where the mun:
cipality itself formed too small a school district, amalgamation of that muni-
cipality with other municipalities (as recommended below) should be accompanied
by a corresponding amalgamation of the school districts."
‘The reason I have dwelt on these points to-day is that until these
points are understood and accepted we will not have the amalgamation of the
subsized Municipal Units or avoid the demand of the large unit to get larger.
The lack of services is providing a certain pressure toward amal-
gamation in subsized units, When the demand of the people in these areas be-
comes insistent the adninistrator of the Municipal Government or the Provincial
Government will take action to bring it about,
It would be better to have a long period of discussion as to how the
groupings should be made next, than an arbitrary decision that could be so
woefully wrong and costly,
= 70-
‘The group that makes the final recommendation or decision will have
to consider many factors, some of which will be not only the ones we hav» dis-
cussed this morning but the community of interests, the natural movement of
people to and from markets, ‘The natural dividing barriers such as rivers, The
ease andeconomy of administration and operation, The future development of
the community, The anticipation of services demanded for the future. The avoid-
ance of duplication with the Provincial services,
These are just a few of the considerations, there are many more, some
that are common to all, some that are peculiar to localities, There is a
danger that due to the many problems involved and the feeling amorgst groups
that their local autonomy or control would be lost in amalgamation, That the
fear of joining with other groups involves them in larger costs than can be
afforded, These will all tend to avoid change,
It appears to me that what will be necessary is for study groups to
be started in each municipality to initiate the discussions.
A Commission, or Committee could do the job but some group should be
charged with the responsibility of sorting out this problem.
‘The Province could be asked to have the Municipal Board appointed,
(as recommended in the Provincial Committee Report), They would conduct studies
and hearings as to the changes required in Municipal Boundaries for the future.
They or some other group could carry out this function,
<=
DRAMATIZATION OF THE PREPARATION OF A MUNICIPAL BUDGET
Conducted under the direction of
MR, PAUL KENWAY, C.A. and
KR, J.P, KEELEY, C.A,
Introduction - kr, Keeley
In the past considerable emphasis has been placed on the importance
of the budget, particularly in municipal affairs, It is significant to note
that this emphasis is being maintained since you are constantly reminded - at
times even exhorted - to keep expenditures within the estimates.
There is good reason for this emphasis, The financial fortunes of a
municipal corporation rest upon the ability of those entrusted with them to
follow, as closely as possible, the plan of action set out in the budget, A
municipality is a business operated for the benefit of its shareholders, the
people. It is essential, therefore, that the preparation of the estimates be
given the care and business-like thought necessary to successful administration,
Now let us consider some of the principles of budgeting.
The preparation of a municipal budget differs somewhat from that in
commerce. Generally speaking, the commercial enterprise first explores its
sources of revenue and estimates the return expected before considering the
costs of eaming that revenue. In a municipal corporation the procedure is, or
should be, reversed. ‘The costs of providing the services to be given are first
assembled and then the means of providing those services considered. ‘The pro-
posed expenditures must not be set too low lest overexpenditures deplete cash
reserves} on the other hand they must not be higher than can te afforded by the
ratepayers, In fact, the hiunicipal Act has set a limit to provide sone pro-
tection for the individual,
However, a budget is not a true budget unless it is balanced, You
mst offset your expenses by your sources of funds to meet those expenses.
There are three possibilities open to yout
1, The tax levy
2. Other revenue
3. Accumulated surpluses or reserves.
These accumulated reserves could be divided into two classes:
1. Operative Reserves - e.g. Machinery Replacement
2, Investment Reserves such as those created under
Section 629 of the Act which cannot be used
without the Minister's approval.
This dram tization is not intended to explore in detail the theories
726
of budgeting. Time does not permit this. It is hoped, however, that it will
present a few practical ideas for a workable routine and further that it will
answer some questions in the minds of those of you who are relatively new to
municipal work,
We are today using a budget committee composed of but three people.
In practice this connittee might consist of the whole council, the secretary-
treasurer and the road foreman, In addition to the work sheet provided for
your scrutiny today, there are others which the Secretary-Treasurer would nor
mally provide for his Conmittee which show in more detail the various antici-
pated expenditures, By reason of the limitation of time imposed on us today,
we are not submitting this supporting data,
We are being assisted in this endeavor by liessrs. hicDonald and Trow
who will take the parts of reeve and chairnan of finance, Mr, McDonald has been
promoted to Peeve, lir, Trow has also been promoted to Chairman of Finance. lr.
Kenway, a municipal aiditor, has perhaps received the biggest promotion of all.
I might add in passing, that the Auditors have taken to heart the aspersions
cast on their provess in dramatics in the Secretary-Treasurers' page of the
Western liunicipal Nes, We have, therefore, obtained the services of those
presumably more accomplished in the Thespian art, Suffice it to say that in
this dramatization any resemblarice to persons living or dead is purely inten-
tional. We apologize in advance for sone of the words we are placing in the
mouths of ir, NcDonald and Mr, Trow, They have not yet adnitted that they
agree with our opinions in all matters, Now, on with the play!
DIALOGUE
REEVE (Tom)
CHAIRMAN OF FINANCE (DICK)
SECRETARY-TREASURER (HARRY)
REEVE Well, gentlemen, we might as well get down to business, I guess
you have sone figures for us to work with, Harry.
SEO-TREAS Yes, I prepared a copy of my tudget worksheet for each of you,
REEVE How does the picture look?
SEC-TREAS Well, these are preliminary estimates only, but they look too
high to me, about $4,000 over last year's actual expenses. The
actual budget for 1952 called for $2,000 less again than was
spent,
CHAIRMAN OF
FINANCE What would that do to the mill rate?
SEC-TREAS A Jump of about 3 mills ordinarily, but as special schools are
down, it will mean about 4 mills on to the municipal rates.
CHAIRMAN OF
FINANCE High is right, I couldn't face the ratepayers if I agreed to an
increase of that size. In fact, Bob Jones was at me some time
ago complaining that his taxes had gone up two years in a ro
He's a mean fellow with a shot gun,and I'm tired of dodging him,
ae
REEVE
CHAIRMAN OF
FINANCE
REEVE
‘SEC-TREAS
REEVE
SEC-TREAS
REEVE
SEC-TREAS
CHAIRMAN OF
FINANCE
SEC-TREAS
REEVE
CHAIRMAN. OF
FINANCE
SEC-TREAS
CHAIRMAN OF
FINANCE
REEVE
A review of the overall picture might be a good starting point,
We'll take a look at where the money is coming from before we
touch the expenses, Now how about the "other revenue" for 1953,
Pardon me a minute, I'm new at this job of handling the Finance
Committee, so I'm going to need to ask a lot of questions which
may seem pretty simple to you two fellows, Now, what do you
mean by “other revenue", Tom?
That is any money that the Municipality earns during the year
other than by our actual tax levy.
Well, I have estimated our tax penalties interest earned, land
rentals and Social Assistance grant, The total comes to just
about the same as last year,
And the rest must come from the tax levy, then,
Well Tom, I thought that the elevating grader we have to replace
this year will be paid for by the machinery reserve. So I show
$6,000 in the expenses for this under Plant and Equipment, but
itis offset by bringing $6,000 from our reserve fund to pay for
it.
That's right. We already arranged that at Council meeting, and
that's what the machinery reserve was set up for.
The only other source of revenue this year is the mill rate,
Now about this other revenue - could we bump the estimate on tax
penalties a little?
Our arrears are about the same as they were a year ago, so the
penalties should produce about the same revenue,
It doesn't seem as though we'll find anything there to help us.
Let's turn to the expenses.
At the bottom of page 2, Harry, you show budget overexpenditure
1952 of $2,089.01 as an expense this year, That was spent last
year, so why do we bother with it now,
By overspending last year we dipped into our cash reserves, Under
the provisions of The Municipal Act we had to obtain the athority
of the Minister, This authority was given on condition that we
levy for it this year to recoup our reserves.
What right has he to tell us what to do? It sounds like dictator-
ship to me!
As I understand it, the provision is there to protect us against
ourselves, It seems logical to me that if we have provided
services required by the ratepayers which they have not been asked
to pay for, then we must charge them for it this year.
oh
CHATRMAN OF
FINANCE
SEC~TREAS
CHAIRMAN OF
FINANCE
‘SEC~TREAS
REEVE
‘SEC~TREAS
REEVE
SEC-TREAS
CHAIRMAN OF
FINANCE
‘REEVE
‘SEC~TREAS
CHATRMAN OF
FINANCE
REEVE
Now here I see Reserve for Abatement ani Loss on current levy.
What is that?
The provision we must make for any tax cancellations during the
year.
Haven't we got a Reserve for that now?
Yes, we have, but it is good business to make an appropriation
each year to help maintain a sound cash position,
How do you calculate that appropriation?
On the basis of past experience mostly. Our records show that
our cancellations annually are equal to from 3% to 5% of our
other requirements, I have tentatively used lf of our require-
ments as I now have.them tabulated, This makes the total re-
quirement about $3,700.00,
Isn't Lf a little higher than necessary. Our land at present is
mostly productive, and it seems to me that cancellations have
been lover for the last two or three years.
Well, 3% would probably be adequate, If you wish to reduce it,
we can cut our budget expenses by about $900.00,
Well, we've made a start, But I don't like cuttinge xpenses if
it means we must reduce the work we want to do in the Munici-
pality during 1953, Now how about all that cash we have in the
general bank account, There was $20,000.00 at the end of Dec-
ember, If we used a few thousand of that, the mill rate could
be held down,
We tried that a few years ago. After two years of it we were
going to the bank for a loan by April, but they wouldn't let us
have enough to do all our roadwork that summer before the taxes
started coming in, Now that time we really had angry ratepayers.
‘They practically lived on ny doorstep,
‘There's another point too, We have let our schools get behind,
and although we had money in the bank, we owed about the same
amount at December 31st, ‘The regulations say we must have a cash
surplus, and we haven't got one,
Oh yes. By cash surplus you mean more money in the bank than all
our liabilities, But here's another point. We have $25,000
worth of Victory Bonds, If we sold them there would be enough
money.
Now, slow down with all our reserves, Dick, We had a tough job
building that up during the war years, and so we placed it under
Section 629 of the liunicipal Act, Now it is earmarked for use
only in the event of some emergency, and even then we must obtain
the Minister's approval, He probably wouldn't agree in these
prosperous years to using it for current requirements.
76h
CHAIRMAN OF
FINANCE
REEVE
SEC-TREAS
CHAIRMAN OF
FINANCE
SEC~TREAS
CHAIRMAN OF
FINANCE
REEVE
CHAIRMAN OF
FINANCE
SEC-TREAS
CHAIRMAN OF
FINANCE
REEVE
‘SEC-TRRAS
CHAIRMAN OF
FINANCE
‘SEC~TREAS
REEVE
0.K, Tom, I just wanted to be sure there was no easy solution
for us. Perhaps we had better take the axe to those expenses,
We'll leave the public works until the end to see if we can re~
duce the other expenses at all. 1 don't want to see that road
construction program reduced if we can avoid it,
Maybe we had better start on the uncontrollable section of the
estimates,
dust why are these particular expenses called uncontrollable,
Harry?
‘The municipality is required to levy for these expenses by out-
side bodies, such as school districts, or by the commitment of
a previous council, usually after reference to the ratepayers.
The hospital levy is an example of that.
You mean the Council has not the authority to refuse to levy and
pay these amounts,
That's the size of it, Tom, For example, the first item of
general school requirement, $8,500.00, is set by the Department
of Education, We can't change that,
What about the "special schools levies?" I was looking at sane
of the estimates and a few of them appear very high, Can't we
reduce them?
We would have to consult with the individual boards concerned and
obtain their consent to any reduction,
Fat chance of that, I suppose,
Well, they all have their budgetting problems too, What about,
this secondary school levy, Harry? A fellow was telling me he
supports a secondary school in his school district, and then has
to help pay for these secondary school levies also.
That is not so. There is only one secondary school in the Nuni-
cipality, and the ratepayers in that district don't have to pay
this levy,
Just how does that work again?
Well, the assessment in that school district is deducted fron the
total municipal assessment, Then a rate is struck to provide the
$1,000 required, This levy is charged to everyone except the
Property owners in that school district,
I'm glad to see the Municipal Commissioner's Levy has almost dis-
appeared this year, but the capital levy for the Bittersweet
Hospital District won't change for many years,
abe
CHAIRMAN OF
FINANCE
REEVE
SEC-TREAS
REEVE
SEC-TREAS
CHAIRMAN OF
FINANCE
RREVE
CHAIRMAN OF
FINANCE
REEVE
SEC-TREAS
CHAIRMAN OF
FINANCE
SEC~TREAS
Well, Tom, that brings us to the Controllable Section, Does that
mean’ that’ the Council can directly control all these expenses?
That seems to be the theory, but I can't see that many of these
so-called controllable expenses are actually within our control.
You may be joking, but there is a good deal of truth in that re-
mark, particularly when you consider social services such as
municipal aid and hospitalization, If the bills are there, we
pretty well have to pay them,
Before we go any further, Harry, can you let us know how you
arrived at the figures you have estimated on your worksheet,
Certainly. For the most part they are based on the experience
of the last two or three years, If I knew there was some size-
able difference, I made allowance for it, and noted it in the
column headed "Comments". Now this didn't apply to public works.
Dick can tell you more about this than I can,
These have been talked over with all the other councillors, and
they have each given me their minimum and maximum requirements.
The work to be done on a 50/50 grant basis was discussed at our
last Council meeting. Our road foreman has estimated how many
hours work is required from our machinery to get this work done.
Well, your approach to these estimates appears very sound, But
we had better get a little more detail on the use of the road
machinery when we come to the public works, That's where our
budget overexpenditures have come from in past years, Now, let's
move along again. These items under Protection of Persons and
Property should be easy to clear,
I note thet the provision for noxious weeds is less than we
needed last year. We have more spraying to be done than last
year, and in addition there's also some leafy spurge to be cul-
tivated on the road allowance east of here,
I certainly don't like to increase these estimates, but we must
keep the weeds under control. Perhaps we had better add $200
to your provision here, Harry.
Okay. I'll fix that now, Before you get to the detail of the
Social Services figures, I had better mention that I have gone
over all the known cases in the Municipality requiring institutional
care or municipal aid, the estimated cost of these plus a small
margin for new cases arrives at $3,000.00, The hospitalization
is just guesswork,
We've got to cut our costs somewhere, Couldn't we take a chance
on cutting hospitalization $200 and bring it back to last year's
figure?
Okay, then, I'll reduce that one if Council are willing to adopt
a stiffer collection policy, Some of these people could pay their
own bills,
<7 3
REEVE
SEC~TREAS
CHAIRMAN OF
FINANCE
SEC-TREAS
REEVE
CHAIRMAN OF
FINANCE
‘SEC-TREAS
REEVE
‘SEC~TREAS
CHAIRMAN OF
FINANCE
SEC-TREAS
REEVE
CHAIRMAN OF
FINANCE
SEC~TREAS
Come to think of it, there's a couple of families in that marginal
area in the north west whom we had to help out last summer, I
know they had fair crops and shouldn't be looking for any help this
year,
I recall the ones you mean, I had them figured for about $200 this
year, Well, I can reduce my figure for municipal aid, then,
Look here under Miscellaneous, Harry. Can we cut this $1,000,00
for unforeseen out of the budget?
There are always items of expense during the year which have not
been foreseen, I think it sould remain to bolster appropriations
which prove inadequate,
Well, it certainly should remain, But perhaps we had better take
a chance on cutting it down to $500.00, We don't want to cut the
public works appropriations any more than we have to,
Well, that brings us down to administration costs.
Since this is for the most part my department, I heve tried to
anticipate my requirements as accurately as possible. iy salary,
of course, has been set by Council, Indemnities have been figured
on the basis of the estimated number of meetings, regular and
special, at the rates of remuneration set out in the by-law and
includes the grant to the Reeve. ‘The others have been based where
possible on known requirements with sone allowance for extras.
These look reasonable to me, especially my grant, Now can we get
to Public Works?
Well, we have cut only $1,800.00 off our total expenditures so far,
We are still looking for about $5,000 more to bring our general muni-
cipal dewn to last year's mill rate,
What goes into this bridges and culverts account?
‘The 1953 program was laid out at our last Council meeting,
By the way, our estimate for that Snake River bridge was much too
low. ‘The road foreman tells me it will cost $500 more than we
figured. Eut there's nothing in that appropriation that we can
reduce so we'll have to add on another $500.00,
The rest of these accounts arise chiefly from the operations of
our road machinery. Could you review the accounting treatment
of this so I can be sure I understand how it affects our estimates.
Certainly. For some years we have maintained cost records for
each outfit, Now we can tell quite closely first, how many working
hours we can normally expect from each machine during 1953: secondly,
what will be the cash operating costs per hour for each machine.
You will remember that we discussed our 1952 machinery operations
in December, The Council, at that time, set the hourly rates to
- 78 -
REEVE
SEC~TREAS
REEVE
‘SEC~TREAS
HAIRMAN OF
FINANCE
‘SEC- TREAS
REEVE
CHAIR
FINANCE
oF
REEVE
CHAIRMAN OF
FINANCE
be charged for each machine in 1953. The rates were larger than
the cash costs to make a generous allowance for depreciation, This
surplus will eventually be transferred to the machinery reserve to
provide funds for the new elevating grader in 1953 and the new DB
caterpillar in 195h,
Now how do we bring this into the budget? You, Dick, have
gone over the suggested work programme with the road foreman and
each member of the Council, By taking the estimated number of
hours for each machine, at the rate already set, we find the cost
of each project, Just two other points I'11 mention, We can't
estimate more hours work from a machine than our past experience
tells us we are likely to get. Also some of the operating hours
are spent in maintenance and in moving equipment, so we charge it
to general public works,
Why don't we ignore the time spent on moving and maintenance, We
could cut a few thousand dollars there from the general public works,
It would make the picture look better for a short while, but it
doesn't actually save you any money, And you would find that you
were not transferring enough money to your machinery reserve to
buy the new equipment as you need it.
‘That makes sense, alright. But how can we cut our appropriations?
Well, we must cut out some of the work we wanted done, And when
the machinery has been used the total number of hours vrovided
for, it will need to be tied up. You will remenber that last
year's over-expenditure was caused because we had a good Fall and
kept the machinery going after the money provided had all been
spent.
I see, And now this year we are having to pay for it, so it cur
tails our 1953 programme,
Either that, or the mil] rate mst take a big jump.
Is there any waste in here that we can eliminate?
Perhaps that brings us back to this argument on ward appropriations,
Tom, The ward system leaves us shuttling machinery all over the
country instead of letting it work, And also the sundry expenses
in each ward are frequently made to soothe an angry taxpayer. They
seldom produce a dollar's value for a dollar spent,
You know, Dick, I'm more and more inclined to agree with you.
Just consider some of the advantages of eliminating the ward
system, Much of the petty irritation to the councillor caused by
angry ratepayers disappears because all decisions are made by the
whole council, Then again the responsibility of council as a
whole increases, and results in a much broader viewpoint from
éach member, because they don't have to spend al their time think-
ing of their own ward, but instead can consider the problems of
the whole municipality.
wD
REEVE Well, Dick, we can't get rid of the ward appropriations for this
year's budget, but we had better go into the matter again during
the year,
SEC-TREAS But maybe the ward appropriations could be cut a little.
CHAIRMAN OF Wards 3 and 4 are entitled to the construction equipment for a
PINANCE while this year because ] and 2 had it in 1952. However, per-
haps the public works sundries could cone down a little.
REEVE 0.K, We'll take $200 off each, And i think we'll have to cut
down on the D8 caterpillar and the elevating grader,
‘SEC~TREAS Fifty hours off the D8 and one hundred off the elevating grader
would only give us $1,350.00, ‘That might be about a mile of new
road.
REEVE Perhaps we had better do that, but I don't think we can reduce
them any further, How does that leave the increase?
SEO-TREAS We have decreased the budget by $3300 but we'll still have to in-
crease our mill rate about 2} mills, Of course, 1 mill is for
last year's overexpenditure,
CHAIRMAN OF
FINANCE And the drop in special schools will help offset this,
REEVE Well, that's it boys. I don't like it, but I think we'll have
to recommend it to Council this way.
Conclusion - kr. Kenway
Is there anything for us to learn from this committee meeting? While
the dialogue was intentionally presented to you in an informal manner, the reeve
kept the discussion following a definite pattern which we intend to summarize,
Before we do so, let us consider what work had previously been done, for here
lies the primary reason that the budget problems were haidled smoothly with no
clouding of the issues which were brought under consideration,
Prior to this budget discussion, Council had already:
1. Discussed the 1952 machinery operations and set the hourly rates to be
used for 1953,
2. They had laid out, in whole or in part, some of the work program for
the coming year, In this example, the program for bridges and culverts
had already been set,
3. ‘They had authorized the reeve and finance cheirman to act as a budget
committee, together with the secretary-treasurer,
They had planned in advance their road machinery requirements, and how
they would finance it,
‘The chairman of finance had already:
~ 80 -
i, Prepared a program of road construction after detailed discussions
with each member of the Council, with the municipal foreman, and with
the secretary-treasurer,
2, He had examined much of the supporting detail behind the secretary-
treasurer's preliminary estimates.
‘The secretary-treasurer, prior to the budget committee, had already
1. Converted the finance chairman's program for road machinery into terms
of dollars andcents, and through use of his machinery cost records,
had reconciled it with the amount of work that might reasonably be
expected from each machine,
2, He had tabulated the anticipated requirements for each expense item,
3. He had prepared this information in convenient form for study by the
budget committee together with comparisons against the previous year.
Now let us summarize the job done by that budget committee you were
listening to.
First of all, they reviewed the overall budget picture as shown by
the preliminary estimates, and then they explored methods of reducing the mill
rate without discarding any of their work program for the year, Following this
pattern, they examined in succession the following:~
1. Possibility of increasing other revenue.
2. Bffect of the previous year's overexpenditure on this year's budget.
3, Cutting the tax reserve figure,
i. Using cash reserves instead of levying.
5. The expense items in the budget over which Council had a very Limited
dearee of control. These included not only the "uncontrollable" but
also many of the so-called "controllable" expenses.
Once they had arrived at this point, they knew had to reduce their
work program or to increase their mill rate. So they examined their public
works appropriation realizing that if they weren't willing to cut $5,000.00 off.
it, the mill rate would go up.
Having made their decisions, they prepared their amended estimates for
recommendation to Council.
Just one or two more points before I conclude, Once Council had ap-
proved the budget, the secretary prepared his bylaw, his Schedule A, and the
record of estimates,
Way I emphasize the necessity of properly completing the Schedule
and also the record of estimates, and that this should be regarded by Councils
and Secretary-Treasurers alike as mandatory, The record of estimates carries
the progressive history of the municipal finances for an indefinite period of
time. The Schedule "A" to the rate bylaw is required to prove out the detail
of your levies, and properly completed is invaluable as a check on the balance
of ‘the completed budget.
Month after month throughout the year, the secretary-treasurer prepares
-81-
his financial statements, and the Council reviews the appropriation statement
closely. What they are trying to do is to measure the progress of their work
program against the funds they have provided, ‘Thus they can make the neces-
sary adjustments to their program as conditions require without overexpeading
the budget as a whole. This is absolutely necessary to make the budget fui-
fil its complete function,
In conclusion, I wish to state that some of the figures used in this
discussion probably don't seem realistic. However, they have teen used only
for illustrative purposes and you have only yourselves to blame for permitting
the auditors to prepare this instead of somebody who knew what they were doing.
~ 82 -
URAL MUNICIPALITY OP "x"
STATINMNT OF BUDGET WORKSHEET
For the year ended Siot December 195
Last year
actual
Taxable Assessment 21,997, 000.00
controllable
waco Sfoars = general
8, 425.00
special 29,692. 54
secondary 864.00
Municipal Commissioner's levy 3,205.95
Bittersweet Hospital District levy 3,000.00
HS 2747
Controllable
ie Works
jard 1 2, 256.75
"2 2,751. 72
"3 1,942: 60
"4 1)828.37
General public works 4,053.92
Provineial municipal projects 4,874. 60
Road maintenance 5, 888. 80
Bridges and culverts 3,056. 70
Road commissioners! fees and mileage 908. 63
Protection of Persons and Proper
ras <tr ae er! 50.00
Fire protection 77.90,
Noxious weeds 356.73
Predator control 205. 00
Street lighting 639. 78
Sboial Services
funicipal aid 2,639. 31
Health Unit 1,432.74
Hospitalization 807. 50
Grants 200. 00
Plant_and Equipment
Elevating grader
Road machinery 5,758.00
Miscellaneous
reseen
Administration
ary 3, 300. 00
Annuity 165.00
Vital statistics
Indenities and mileage
Delegations
Postage, printing and stationery
Office maintenance
Interest and bank charges
Insurance and compensation
Elections
General expense
‘Total operating expenditures 93,845. 75
Budget overexpenditure 1952
Reserve for abatement and loss on current levy 3,617.52
Totals 97,465. 27
Estimated 1992 (28.1 M plus special schools) 95, 374. 26
Overexpenditure 1952 $ 2,089.02
Preliminary
estimate
92,000,000. 00
8, 500. 00
27,000.00
11,000. 00
250.00
3,000:00
39, 750. 00
1,900. 00
1,900: 00
3, 150. 00
2, 200. 00
6,050. 00
6,500.00
7,000. 00
4,000: 00
1,000. 00
30.00
100: 00
300.00
200: 00
700.00
3,000.00
1,500. 00
1,000.00
300: 00
6,000.00
1,000. 00
8,600. 00
180. 00
30.00
1,000. 00
200.00
500.00
300.00
300. 00
250.00
100.00
400.00
100-00
100: 00
200.00
95, 560. 00
2,089. 02
3,700. 99
$201, 150.00
Changes by budget
Comments
All but assessment costs removed
Construction equipment 1952
" mn aoBs"
this year
this year
Road construction increased
Grants for 6,500.00 approved
Council increased’ machine rate for 1953
Larger progran then 1952
200.00
Village of "Y" additional to 1952
Institution rates have increased
Increase granted Bylaw 207
Subdivision costs of 3400.00 in 1952
$700.00
- 83-
ingreases
00.00
Decreases
200.00
200.00
200. 00
200.00
1,550.00
Soneauie 1.
Page 1.
RURAL MUNICIPALITY OF "x" Schedule 1.
Page 2.
‘STATIBMGYT OF BUDGET WORKSHEET (continued)
Be a ae re Amended
estimates
Retimated expences $97, 850.00
Less: Special schools $27,000.00 plus 5% reserve 28,
Estimated Revenue
jer revenue:
Ponalti ‘900.00
Taxes added 300.00
Interest 300. 00
S.A. grant “700.00
Sundry (licenses, etc.) 200. 00
Machinery reserve
To be raised by levy
Assessment
‘Mill rate required
General schools
Secondary education
Municipal Commissioner
Hospital district
Prior year's overexpenditure
General. municipal
SUMMARY OF MACHINERY OPERATION ESTIMATES :
AND PUBLIC WORK SUNDRY EXPENSE
Cumulative Hourly rate Average Provincial General
cash costs chargeable operating Municipal Road public
Machine per hour for machine hours per year WL me 3 m4 Projects maintenance —_worke. Total
Hours nee ert
“#2 Patrol 200 ‘200 200 200 1,000 100 1,900
De Caterpillar 150 200 900 350 1) 500
Elevating grader 700 200 800
350 300 7,600 3,000 550 4,500
2 Patrol v4.80 97.00 vi,400 91,400 $7,000 ¥ . B00 913,500
M750
‘DS Caterpillar 715 9.00 1,350 900 9,000 a pe 13,500
y
Elevating grader 4.20 7.00 4,000 c "800 6,300
Ti00 1,400 «2,750 2,300 13, 000 7,000 3,250 33, 100
Public works sundry expense 500500 400 400 00 2,600
7,900 1,900 3,180 2,700 13, 000 7,000 6,050 35, 700
Less: Roed grants from Province 8} 500 ; 500
Estimated costs carried to budget worksheet 900 3,900 3,150 2,700 6,500 7,000 6,050 29, 200
Budget Committ
greases
Decrease 20 __200 200 200 1,950 2,150
Amended budget figures $2,700 31,700 92,950 32,800 284500 37,000 $4,700 427,080
M Maintenance time
€ Construction time
1 Hlevating grader reduced 100 hours
2 D8 reduced 50 hours ie
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